Eastland Complex Fire is the Reason You’re Smelling Smoke in Temple, Texas

Did you wake up this morning and smell a thick presence of smoke? You're not alone. Many people in Temple, Texas awoke to the same smell.

Smoke?

Heading out the door this morning at 4am, I also smelled the smoke but thought it was just a neighbor using their fireplace. The further I drove away from my neighborhood, the more I realized that it wasn't a fireplace at all.

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I hit the socials once I arrived at the station and saw that a lot of people awoke to the same concern. Some even said that they woke up thinking their own house may have been on fire.

Eastland Complex Fire

Turns out the winds are blowing smoke from the Eastland Complex fire through Central Texas. NBC DFW reports that several wildfires burning in Eastland County have burned off 62 square miles -  or about 40,000 acres - with no containment, forcing the evacuation of about 475 homes in the town of Gorman, Texas. Homes and other structures have burned as a result, although officials don't have a confirmed count.

Hazy Houston

KHOU says Houston was also seeing a lot of haze Friday morning as a result of the massive blaze, and reports that the heavy smoke is actually from four separate fires - Kidd Fire (30,000 acres), Wheatfield Fire (5,000 acres), Oak Mott Fire (4,500 acres) and the Walling Fire (383 acres) - with 2% containment on Friday Morning.

Aviation crews were requested to help, but high winds are keeping them grounded. Crews include three fire boss single-engine tankers, three large air tankers, two helicopters, and a chinook.

Hopefully mother nature will get involved with some much needed rain to get this under control.