A massive wildfire burning across the Texas Panhandle has scorched more than 1 million acres, making it the largest recorded blaze in state history, officials there say.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire is one of five active wildfires burning in north Texas, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The blazes have caused thousands of evacuations and power outages and left at least one person dead.
🔥 What’s happening
According to the forest service, these are the five wildfires burning in north Texas:
The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned more than 1 million acres and is 3% contained.
The Windy Deuce Fire has burned 142,000 acres and is 30% contained.
The Grape Vine Creek Fire has burned 30,000 acres and is 60% contained.
The Magenta Fire burned 2,500 acres and is 65% contained.
The 687 Reamer Fire has burned more than 2,000 acres and is 10% contained.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire surpassed Texas’s previously largest wildfire on record, the East Amarillo Complex Fire, which killed a dozen people as it torched more than 907,000 acres in March 2006.
Heavy winds, extremely dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures across the Panhandle have caused each of the fires spread quickly, fire officials say.
➡️ One death reported
CNN reported that Joyce Blankenship, 83, died at her house in Stinnett, Texas, Wednesday as the Smokehouse Creek Fire swept through it.
“The house was gone,” her grandson, Nathan Blankenship, said. “There was no way she could’ve gotten out.”
"Texans are urged to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Tuesday while issuing a disaster declaration for 60 counties to allow fire response resources to be quickly deployed to areas affected by the wildfires.
⚡ Power and water outages
Thousands remain without power in parts of the Panhandle, though reports of power outages have been declining.
Residents in Fritch, a city of about 2,000 located in Hutchinson and Moore counties, were without water and power. The city pleaded in a Facebook post for an industrial generator "to help get our water back up."
Residents have been posting wildfire updates in a public Facebook group, through which locals have been coordinating assistance to move their livestock, borrow equipment, and find and provide shelter and donations.
🏠 Thousands are under evacuation orders
Several towns and communities were under mandatory evacuations in the Amarillo region, according to the National Weather Service. Residents in other towns had the choice to evacuate.
The Windy Deuce Fire destroyed about half of the structures in Borger and Fritch. In Fritch, more than 40 houses were damaged and parts of the city had to be evacuated. In Borger, many of the city's 13,000 residents said they felt trapped.
“It was like a ring of fire around Borger," Adrianna Hill told the Associated Press. "There was no way out."
Oklahomans in the northwest part of the state, which shares a border with Texas, have also been forced to leave their homes due to the Smokehouse Creek Fire, which jumped across state lines on Tuesday.
It has already burned more than 30,000 acres in Oklahoma.
💣 Partial shutdown at nuclear weapons facility
On Tuesday night, Carson County's Pantex Plant — the U.S.'s main nuclear weapons facility — briefly evacuated nonessential staff out of an "abundance of caution," said Laef Pendergraft, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration's production office at Pantex.
The facility, which is largely responsible for assembling and disassembling the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal, is about 13 miles away from the Windy Deuce Fire in Moore County.
The plant said Wednesday it was open for “normal day shift operations.”
🧑🚒 Firefighters deployed to contain flames
The Smokehouse Creek Fire was just 3% contained as of Wednesday evening, according to the forest service.
But crews battling the flames have made more progress on the smaller wildfires. The Windy Deuce Fire, which has burned about 142,000 acres, is about 30% contained.
In Gray County, firefighters have contained about 60% of the Grape Vine Creek Fire, which has destroyed 30,000 acres.
The Juliet Pass Fire in Armstrong County was largely under control, with 100% containment, but an estimated 3,000 acres were still scorched.