As the sun set on an airport hotel parking lot in Austin, Texas, Roger Cosby needed to tell his story.

He had just witnessed a sight that many Texans are battling - a devastating wildfire.

The state's largest blaze, a massive, uncontained fire in Bastrop County near Austin, has scorched some 25,000 acres, destroyed at least 470 homes and forced about 5,000 residents to evacuate.

That wildfire on Sunday was near the house Cosby shares with his companion of nine years, Cindy Boyd.

Cosby was taking a nap, while Boyd was working in their shop, making decorative plates.

Then Boyd smelled smoke.

"Roger, we have to go now, we have to go now," Cosby recalls Boyd saying as she woke him.

The Bastrop home that Boyd has lived in for 26 years was on fire.

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