NU Online News Service, Sept. 13, 11:25 a.m. EDT

As a beleaguered Texas continues to battle new outbreaks of wildfires across the state, the Insurance Council of Texas says losses could reach a quarter-billion dollars as home losses rise to close to 2,000.

Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas says in a statement that insured losses from the fires in Bastrop County, Texas, the hardest hit, could cost the industry $150 million alone.

“This is our first estimate of the total insured losses and the number could vary as more information come in,” says Hanna.

The Texas Forest Service says the fires have now claimed 1,939 homes in central and East Texas.

The service says that in the past seven days it has responded to 127 fires covering 9,205 acres.

As of yesterday, 10 new fires broke-out covering 179 acres.

The Bastrop fire is only 60 percent contained and covers over 34,000 acres.

Weather forecasts call for dry conditions to continue through the fall and the drought conditions, which are the worst in decades, are expected to get worse.

During a press conference last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry says that the wildfires covered an area equal to the size of Connecticut, more than 3.6 million acres.

Special Reports /

Texas Wildfire Loss Estimate Reaches $250M

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