Grass fire flares in Texas, burns 10 homes

By the CNN Wire Staff

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Nearly 190 homes are evacuated
A grass fire flares in Leander, Texas, about 35 miles from Austin
Within a couple of hours, 10 houses are burning
Texas is in the midst of an unprecedented drought

(CNN) -- What started as a grass fire in tinder-dry Leander, Texas, quickly moved on to consuming homes Monday as air tankers, a helicopter and a task force with bulldozers and trucks moved in to battle a drought-fueled blaze.

Rich Reuse with the Texas Forest Service confirmed that 10 homes were burned with about two hours of the time the blaze, dubbed the Horseshoe Fire, was first reported Monday afternoon in Leander, about 35 miles northwest of Austin.

Reuse said Monday night that in addition to the 10 houses destroyed, another 189 homes had been evacuated. Units from the Texas Forest Service and from 14 fire departments were battling the 30-acre blaze, Reuse said.

Texas is in the midst of an "unprecedented drought," according to the U.S. Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

"Climate data show that the Lone Star State is in its driest ten-month period ever on record, in over a century of data. This is unprecedented territory," the agency said on its website.