Texas fire live updates: Dry weather to intensify state's largest wildfire - The Independent

Texas fire live updates: Dry weather and strong winds threatened to intensify state’s largest ever wildfire | The Independent

Texas fire live updates: Dry weather and strong winds threatened to intensify state’s largest ever wildfire

There’s still no end in sight for Smokehouse Creek fire which is now five times the size of New York City

Katie Hawkinson,
Stuti Mishra Comments

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has extended to nearly 1.1 million acres across the Texas Panhandle, becoming the “largest and most destructive” in state history – as dry weather and strong winds expected this weekend could intensify the blaze.

“This is now both the largest and most destructive fire in Texas history,” the West Odessa Volunteer Fire Department wrote on Facebook. "It is also the second largest wildfire in U.S. history.”

The fires have killed at least two people, with authorities worried about more casualties as a thorough search for victims was yet to be conducted.

Joyce Blankenship, 83, was found dead in her destroyed Hutchinson County home, officials said. On Thursday it was confirmed that a second woman – Cindy Owens – had succumbed to her injuries after getting out of her truck and being severely burned.

“Critical fire weather conditions are expected to return midday Saturday and once again after sunrise Sunday,” the National Weather Service for Amarillo said. “Please refrain entirely from outdoor activities that generate sparks or flames.”

The fire has burned 1,078,086 acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service, and is more than five times the size of New York City.
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Fire in Texas is ‘largest and most destructive’ in state history

“This is now both the largest and most destructive fire in Texas history,” the West Odessa Volunteer Fire Department wrote on Facebook. "It is also the second largest wildfire in U.S. history.”
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ICYMI: Watch as plane flies over apocalyptic wildfire raging in Texas
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Previous prescribed burns helped limit flames this week

An official with the Hutchinson County, Texas Office of Emergency Services said prescribed burning helped prevent this week’s fires from becoming worse.

“You can see where we did our prescribed burns previously, how, thankfully, our wildland team did that, because that saved a lot of people’s properties,” the spokesperson said on a Facebook live video. “I know we couldn’t save everything.”

Late last year, Texas officials conducted a prescribed burn in Hutchinson County, which prevented this week’s fires from spreading into the southern parts of the town of Borger, CNN reports.

Prescribed burns are fires intentionally set in controlled areas to destroy fire fuels like dried-out grass and leaves. Indigenous communities have used this practice for millennia and have long advocated for the US government to adopt it in fire-vulnerable areas.
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Weather conditions favourable for wildfires forecasted in several states

The National Weather Service is forecasting strong winds and low humidity in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico this weekend.

These factors are favourable for wildfires and resemble the weather conditions in the Texas Panhandle earlier this week when the Smokehouse Creek fire — the largest in state history — first sparked.

The National Weather Service is forecasting conditions favourable to wildfires this weekend
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ICYMI: Nuclear weapon factory forced to evacuate as Texas wildfires threatened plant earlier this week

Wildfires sweeping across Texas briefly forced the evacuation of America’s main nuclear weapons facility as strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures fed the blaze.

Pantex Plant, the main facility that assembles and disassembles America’s nuclear arsenal, briefly shut down its operations on Tuesday night as the Windy Deuce fire roared towards the Potter County location.

The Windy Deuce fire is still burning 142,000 acres at 55 per cent containment as of Friday afternoon.

Read more:

Nuclear weapon factory forced to evacuate as Texas wildfires threaten plant

Several wildfires are scorching the Texas panhandle with thousands evacuated
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Charred homes, blackened earth after Texas town revisited by destructive wildfire 10 years later

The small town of Fritch is again picking through the rubble of a Texas wildfire, a decade after another destructive blaze burned hundreds of homes and left deep scars in the Panhandle community.

Residents in and around Fritch and other rural towns fled for safety Tuesday afternoon as high winds whipped the flames into residential areas and through cattle ranches.

Fritch Mayor Tom Ray said on Wednesday the town’s northern edge was hit by a devastating wildfire in 2014, while this week’s blaze burned mostly to the south of the town, sparing the residents who live in the heart of the community.

Read on:

Charred homes, blackened earth after Texas town revisited by destructive wildfire 10 years later

The small town of Fritch is again picking through the rubble of a Texas wildfire, a decade after another destructive blaze burned hundreds of homes and left deep scars in the Panhandle community
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See the latest maps of the Texas wildfires burning more than 1m acres

Texas wildfires: Map of blazes ravaging the Panhandle

The largest Smokehouse Creek fire is 0 per cent contained as of early Wednesday morning and is estimated to be 500,000 acres, making it the second-largest blaze in state history
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Hemphill County ranchers have lost thousands of cattle to the Texas Panhandle fires.

“It’s been a rough day in Hemphill County, massive losses of ranch land (over 400,000 acres in Hemphill County alone), scores of homes destroyed, literally thousands of cattle lost and much more than can be described,” an official with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service for the county said.

A 120-year-old cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle lost about 80 per cent of its land to the fires this week, the managers of the Turkey Track Ranch said in a statement.

“Our early assessment estimates that The Turkey Track Ranch has suffered and lost approximately 80 % of our pastures, plains, and creek bottom vegetation,” the statement read. “We continue to assess the total damage to other infrastructure and the loss of livestock.”

Snow covers a scorched landscape and a cow who died amid the blaze in Fritch, Texas
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Texas Governor mourns destruction from wildfires

“When you look at the damages that have occurred here, it’s just gone,” Governor Greg Abbott said at a Friday afternoon press conference.

“Nothing left but ashes on the ground. Those who are affected by this devastation, they are going through challenges that others cannot comprehend. They need our ongoing support.”

The largest fire, the Smokehouse Creek fire, is still burning more than 1m acres at just 15 per cent containment.
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ICYMI: Second person dies as Texas wildfires become biggest blaze in state’s history

A second death has been confirmed in the raging wildfires in Texas that have become the biggest blaze in the state’s history.

Cindy Owens, believed to be in her 40s, from Amarillo City in Potter County was confirmed dead by officials on Thursday.

Stuti Mishra has the story:

Second person dies as Texas wildfires become biggest blaze in state’s history

Owens got out of truck and ‘the fire simply overtook her’, officials say