Alex Branch

STRAWN, Texas -- Wearing a soot-tinged yellow and green fire uniform, John Garrett devoured two hot dogs in four bites.

The firefighter from Arizona took a long swig from a water bottle and grabbed a plastic sack full of water, sliced white bread and corn chips for crew members still battling unrelenting Texas wildfires Monday northwest of this Palo Pinto County town.

"It's brutal," said Garrett, 32, who arrived Sunday in Texas. "The temperature is high; it's just so hot that it's roasting out there."