Thousands of acres burn at West Texas park

BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Texas – Big Bend National Park is on fire, the National Park Service reported Tuesday.

A downed power line started a wildfire in the park around 5 p.m. Monday.

The Texas park covers more than 800,000 acres, of which 1,995 acres were burning as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Big Bend National Park Facebook page.

"Due to continued high winds and hot/dry conditions, the fire spread very quickly east and north of Panther Junction, beyond the K-Bar back country campsites," the National Park Service reported.

No injuries have been reported. According to the Facebook page, 35 firefighters are involved in containing the fire.

Rio Grande Electric has already restored power in the park.

Back country campsites around the eastern half of the park will be unavailable until further notice as a safety precaution.

High winds and low humidity this week elevated the fire danger for Big Bend National Park.

All roads into the park are currently open.

Threats to local housing areas, power lines and other structures have diminished as firefighters continue to fight the blaze.

Updates will be posted on the Big Bend National Park Facebook page.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));