Surging wildfires fueled by strong winds and dry grass in unseasonably warm temperatures prompted safety warnings for residents of several towns and at least one evacuation order in the far northern part of the Texas Panhandle on Tuesday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties and ordered the state to activate emergency response assistance to support local firefighters.
“Texans are urged to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe,” Abbott said.
One of the fires dubbed the Smokehouse Creek Fire, has already burned more than 300 square miles and is 0% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The fire has more than doubled its size since it sparked Monday.
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The Flower Mound Fire Department said on X that three members of their Wildland Team and their brush truck left for the Panhandle on Monday night. The crew is assigned to the Smokehouse Creek Fire.
Multiple fires were reported across Hemphill and Hutchinson counties.
Texas state Sen. Kevin Sparks said an evacuation order was issued for the town of Canadian, a town of about 2,000 about 100 miles northeast of Amarillo, and other areas.
The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings and fire danger alerts for several other states through the midsection of the country, as high winds of over 40 mph combined with warm temperatures, low humidity, and dry winter vegetation make conditions ripe for wildfires.
In central Nebraska, a mower sparked a prairie fire that has burned a huge swath of grassland roughly the size of the state's largest city of Omaha, state officials said Tuesday.
ACTIVE TEXAS WILDFIRES
Information current as of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, from the Texas A&M Forest Service.
- Juliet Pass Fire, Armstrong County - 2,963 acres, 90% contained
- Grape Vine Creek Fire, Gray County - est. 30,000 acres, 15% contained
- Smokehouse Creek Fire, Hutchinson County - est. 40,000 acres, 0% contained
- Windy Deuce Fire, Moore County - est. 4,000 acres, 5% contained
- Old Bunger Fire, Young County - 20 acres, 30% contained
TEXAS WILDFIRES
2011 TEXAS WILDFIRES
In April 2011, during an extreme drought, four out-of-control wildfires burning in close proximity to each other were dubbed The Possum Kingdom Complex Fire. The fires scorched 126,000 acres of parched Texas ranch land and destroyed 168 homes and two churches.
Senior Meteorologist David Finfrock said in the NBC 5 docu-series Inside the Storm: Texas Burning, that at that time the period from August 2010 to July 2011 was the driest 12 consecutive months on record.
Later that summer, in August, a second fire erupted near the lake called the PK 101 Ranch fire. That fire burned more than 6,000 additional acres on the south side of the lake and destroyed nearly 40 more homes.
On Sept. 4, 2011, a massive wildfire erupted in Central Texas. The Bastrop County Complex Fire, east of Austin, became the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. More than 1,600 homes and structures were destroyed when 32,000 acres were scorched, including 96% of the 6,565-acre Bastrop State Park. Two people died in the fires.
During that 2011 fire season, the Texas A&M Forest Service said more than 31,000 fires burned more than four million acres across the state and destroyed 2,947 homes.
