Texas wildfire live updates: Weekend weather could fuel state's biggest ever blaze - The Independent

Texas wildfire live updates: Weekend weather could fuel state’s biggest ever blaze | The Independent

Texas wildfire live updates: State’s biggest ever blaze could be fueled further by weekend winds

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

Five wildfires ripping across Texas 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.

Strong winds and low humidity will hit the Texas Panhandle this weekend, elevating the possibility of new fires sparking and old fires spreading.

“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.”

These same conditions earlier this week contributed to many of the current fires sparking and spiralling out of control.

Meanwhile, the Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest in state history, is 15 per cent contained as of Friday afternoon.

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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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
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SEE IT: Snow falls on scorched Texas landscape
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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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SEE IT: Crews battle flames, handle debris in Texas Panhandle

Emergency crews building a containment line to fight the Windy Deuce fire, which is burning more than 100,000 acres

Texas Wildfires

Firefighters extinguish flames from the Windy Deuce fire, which threatened a nuclear weapons plant on Tuesday
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Officials say more than 100 miles of power line need repair

The North Plains Electric Cooperative, which serves large swaths of the Texas Panhandle, said they’ll have to repair about 115 miles of power lines in the wake of the fires.

“We have a few scattered areas and the majority of Hemphill Co. that are without power,” the company wrote in a statement. “Our goal is to have ALL that are without power restored by Monday, March 4th.”

Some 500 people in Hemphill County — just northeast of where the Smokehouse Creek fire began — are without power as of late Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.
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