As fires devastated Central Texas on Sunday, firefighters found themselves stretched to their limits.

John Durham, an assistant chief at Lake Travis Fire Rescue, said his crews spent their Sunday morning and early afternoon assisting with fires in Pflugerville and the Pedernales area.

But when a large fire broke out in their own neck of the woods, in the Steiner Ranch subdivision, they found themselves without much help.

"It quickly became a situation of having no resources available throughout the county," Durham said. "We were all pretty tapped out."

With high winds and extremely dry vegetation, fires spread quickly and furiously on Sunday. The day proved to be disastrous for firefighters across Travis County.

"There just aren't enough firefighters and (equipment) on a day like this," Durham said. "You are going to lose structures."

Durham said when his department was fighting the Steiner Ranch fire, they called for air resources — planes or helicopters that could douse the flames. But none were available, he said, because they were off fighting other fires.

"The odds were just all stacked against us today," he said.

Lt. Josh Portie, a brush fire specialist with the Austin Fire Department, said his department mobilized everyone available to fight the fires that sprung up around the Austin area.

As the day went on, it was a task that became more and more daunting, he said, as fires seemed to crop up everywhere.

"The wind blew it a lot faster than fire crews could keep up with it," Portie said. "We were trying to staff every one of the units."

At one point the department issued a plea through the news media for available firefighters to call in and report for duty.

"We've had crews on fires all day," Portie said. "They're getting taxed, getting worn out. It's pretty severe conditions."

Austin Fire Department spokeswoman Michelle DeCrane said the department had 14 available fire units in Austin, but on Sunday could only send one firetruck to the scene of traffic accidents. They were also too busy with brush fires to send units to low priority, nonemergency 911 calls, DeCrane said.

Gary Warren, fire chief of the Westlake and Oak Hill departments said there weren't enough resources to actively fight a fire that broke out in the Pedernales area off Paleface Ranch Road, off Texas 71.

"Our resources are about played out," Warren said.

"It's advancing basically unchecked toward the south toward the Hays County line. It's in an unpopulated area, and Hays County has put together a strike team" to fight it from their side, Warren said. "There are no resources available to go fight a fire where there are no homes."

Starting about 11 a.m., the series of fires broke out across the region that burned well into the night and destroyed multiple homes and other structures. All 13 fire departments in Travis County were battling blazes by 1:30 p.m.

Although cooler temperatures are on the way this week, that will bring little end to the fire season. With more dry, windy conditions on tap, officials are urging people to do everything they can to avoid fires, including properly disposing of their cigarettes.

"You light a match out here and you're going to burn down half the county," said Travis County sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade.

Nothing short of massive rainfall will alleviate the dry conditions that have turned every leaf, tree and blade of grass in the state into kindling. Mark Stanford, the Texas Forest Service's fire chief, said that the state is forecasted to be in a drought until November.

"We don't see any change, barring tropical moisture," Stanford said.

The conditions don't look to improve today, officials said. With windy weather forecasted to continue into the early part of the week, conditions are ripe for more fires to start and spread quickly, and firefighters will also have to engage the ones that were still burning from Sunday.

"We're expecting another day just like today," Warren said. "We'll just start Round Two, and it will be time to just get back to work, I'm sure."