Authorities went house to house in a search for victims in burned-out towns yesterday as firefighters in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma battled grass fires across the drought-stricken region.

Since last Tuesday, fires have charred thousands of acres of grassland and farmland and destroyed more than 250 structures in the three states. Four deaths were reported last week in Texas and Oklahoma.

One of the weekend blazes destroyed most of Ringgold, Texas, a ranch-and-cattle town of some 100 people near the Oklahoma line, burning about 50 homes and 40,000 acres as wind swept the fire 13 miles from Ringgold to Nocona.

"It didn't take 30 minutes," Carol Ezzell said of the blaze's run through town, destroying all but seven buildings on Main Street, including the post office.

She said the wind caused little fire tornadoes.

"It was just turning, and every time it would make a loop it would just leap" and begin burning somewhere new, she said.

Everyone had been accounted for in Ringgold, but crews searched from house to house for potential casualties in other fire-blackened towns, including Kokomo and Cross Plains, where more than 90 homes and a church were destroyed last week.

Officials warned that the dry, windy weather and extreme fire danger would continue.

"At this point, we consider the whole city a target for grass fires,"Oklahoma City Fire Department Maj. Brian Stanaland said yesterday.

Computer models yesterday showed no rain in the foreseeable future, said Jesse Moore, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth.

He said the region's last appreciable rain was about a quarter-inch on Dec. 20. Oklahoma is more than a foot behind its normal rainfall of about 36 inches for this time of year.

Weary firefighters remained on the job yesterday, trying to contain several of the 20 fires that broke out the day before in Texas, including one in Eastland County, about 125 miles west of Dallas, that stretched for 25 miles.

Firefighters said they were close to containing the fire but were concerned about an expected wind shift.

"Yesterday was a tough day in Texas," said Gov. Rick Perry, who was in Nocona yesterday to survey the damaged area. "We had over 50,000 acres of land burned."

Since Nov. 1, Oklahoma wildfires have covered more than 285,000 acres and destroyed 200 buildings, said Michelle Finch, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department's forestry division.

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