Wildfires become one of the largest in Texas history as flames threaten several small towns
A series of wildfires ravaged the Texas Panhandle on Wednesday, including one that became one of the largest in the state's history, as flames moved at an alarming rate and blackened the landscape across a vast expanse of small towns and cattle ranches.
Authorities warned that damage to high plains communities could be extensive.
Known as the Smoke House Creek Fire, the largest blaze spread to more than 1,300 square miles (3,367 square kilometers) and affected parts of neighboring Oklahoma. It is now larger than the state of Rhode Island, and the Texas A&M Forest Service said the flames were only about 3% contained.
The largest fire recorded in the state's history was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which burned some 1,400 square miles and claimed 13 lives.
Authorities had reported no deaths or injuries Wednesday morning as huge plumes of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air. But authorities warned residents of potentially significant property losses.
"There was a moment when we couldn't see anything," said Greg Downey, 57, describing his escape from the flames as flames raged through his neighborhood. "I didn't think we'd make it."
Bill Kendall, Hemphill County's emergency management coordinator, described the charred terrain as "like a moonscape." ... It's all gone.
Kendall said about 40 homes were burned around the perimeter of the town of Canadian, but no buildings were lost inside the community.
"We started recording these losses in the dark, so we didn't really know what we had until this morning, until we could see it," he said.
The town of Fritch, with a population of less than 2,000, lost hundreds of homes in a fire in 2014 and appears to be hit hard again.
Residents there probably aren't "prepared for what they're going to see if they get to town," Hutchinson County emergency management spokeswoman Deidra Thomas said in a livestream on social media. She compared the damage to a tornado.
The city remains unsafe for people to return to, she said.
Tresea Rankin filmed her own home in the town of Canadian as it burned.
"Thirty-eight years of memories, that's what you were thinking," Rankin said of the flames destroying her home. "Two of my kids were married there.... But you know, it doesn't matter, the memories won't go away."
Authorities didn't specify what started the fires, but high winds, dry grass and unusually high temperatures fueled the blazes. Near Borger, a community of around 13,000, emergency officials answered questions from panicked residents on Facebook Tuesday evening and told them to prepare to leave if they hadn't already.
"It was like a ring of fire around Borger. There was no way out...all four main roads were closed," said Adrianna Hill, 28, whose home was about a mile from the fire. She said a wind that blew the fire in the opposite direction "saved our butts".
Republican Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties. The encroaching flames caused the main facility that dismantles America's nuclear arsenal to halt operations on Tuesday night, but it was open for normal work on Wednesday.
The fires ravaged sparsely populated counties on the vast, high plains dotted with cattle ranches and oil rigs.
The weather forecast has given firefighters some hope: cooler temperatures, less wind and possibly rain on Thursday. But for now, the situation is disastrous in some areas.
Sustained winds of up to 45 mph (72 km/h), with gusts of up to 70 mph (113 km/h), pushed fires spreading eastward southward, threatening new areas, forecasters said. But the winds calmed after a cold front passed through Tuesday evening, said Peter Vanden Bosch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
"Fortunately, the winds have weakened considerably," Vanden Bosch said Wednesday. Windy conditions were expected again on Friday, and fire-friendly weather could return by the weekend, he said.
As evacuation orders multiplied on Tuesday, county and city officials implored residents to activate emergency alert services on their cell phones and be ready to evacuate immediately.
The Pantex plant northeast of Amarillo evacuated non-essential personnel Tuesday night out of "a lot of caution," said Laef Pendergraft, spokeswoman for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Pantex production office. Firefighters remained in case of emergency.
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