Sunday

The first fire started in Pflugerville Sunday morning.

I had to leave that fire for one burning homes across town. On the way, a third fire spawned a massive smoke plume behind me.

I filed a story on the homes destroyed in Cedar Park for our 5 pm newscast. By then we heard about massive fires in Bastrop and Steiner Ranch.

I loaded up in a live truck and drove to Steiner Ranch to cover a fire threatening dozens of homes.

After the evacuation, I ended up as the only reporter inside the Steiner Ranch neighborhood. I tweeted, sent in information for the web, took pictures and ran my own live shots.

Monday

After a few hours of sleep, it was time to head to a fire we couldn’t even make it to the day before. Homes were burning in the Spicewood / Pedernales area.

Conditions on Monday continued to be unpredictable, keeping firefighters from getting a handle on the fire.

I tracked the fire for the web and social media and fed back stories for all the newscasts that day.

Feeling ambitious, I hiked across the dry bed of the Pedernales River and climbed a cliff to find people inside the fire zone.

Between newscasts I headed to the South end of the fire, where new evacuations were taking place.

Tuesday

By day 3, conditions had improved at the Spicewood fire, but it continued to burn.

At one point the fire almost got me, burning up to the edge of the highway across from me.

Needless to say, I backed off a bit. I did get splashed once the helicopter started dumping water.

By the end of the day, the Spicewood fire was nearly out. It became clear Bastrop would be the center of attention from that point forward.

Wednesday

By Wednesday the smoke had set in across Austin. Meanwhile, the ISS got a view of the fires from space.

I spent most of Wednesday out of cell phone (and Twitter) range. I took a Live U backpack and covered the other side of the Bastrop fire, in Smithville.

Thursday

Over the following days, firefighters started to get everything under control, and the federal government stepped in. I returned to Bastrop to cover the aftermath.

I went up in the DPS helicopter to get an aerial look at the damage. Coupled with what I saw on the ground, it was incomprehensible.

Within a week, thousands of volunteers converged on Bastrop, starting the rebuilding process.