Texas wildfire becomes second-largest in state history, burning 500,000 acres
The second-largest wildfire in Texas history continued to rip across the Texas Panhandle along with other major blazes on Wednesday, prompting evacuations, school closures and a temporary shut down of the nation's primary nuclear weapons facility.
The blazes began on Monday but spread quickly the following day as strong winds, dry conditions and unseasonably high temperatures, which broke records across the country, fueled rapid growth. By Wednesday morning, the largest fire, Smokehouse Creek, stretched across 500,000 acres – about 800 square miles, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
To the south, the Windy Deuce fire burned 40,000 acres in southern Moore County and northern Potter County; 20% has been contained. Authorities have not said what might have caused the fires, which burned through sparsely populated counties set amid vast, high plains. An untold number of buildings have been destroyed as the wildfires remain mostly uncontained.
The intense blazes in Texas were among several wild weather events occurring Tuesday, including tornadoes in Illinois and a swath of record-high temperatures in the eastern half of the nation.
The National Weather Service in Amarillo said "conditions largely remain unchanged and fires generally continue to trend favorably," especially as temperatures have dropped and the wind has grown weaker. On Thursday, a mix of rain and snow is expected, according to the weather service.
Multiple towns, cities remain under evacuation orders
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties to enable critical resources to be deployed to areas impacted by the wildfires. The Smokehouse Creek fire is the largest of the blazes that ripped across the region, but it is among 13 fires that started on Monday.
While some residents were told they could return to their homes, several towns remain under mandatory evacuations. The Smokehouse Creek Fire forced evacuations in the cities of Hemphill County, which sits about a hundred miles northeast of Amarillo. Several school districts throughout the country canceled classes for Wednesday. Multiple shelters were
Pantex Plant reopens after temporary shut down
The Windy Deuce fire triggered Pantex Plant, the nation's primary nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility, about 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, to shut down and evacuate Tuesday evening. The plant said in a post on X that fire barriers were being built "to protect plant facilities."
On Wednesday, the facility announced it will reopen for normal operations.
The plant performs research and development in high explosives and serves as an interim storage site for plutonium pits removed from dismantled weapons, according to the Department of Energy. The roughly 16,000-acre site, which includes a huge buffer zone, is jointly operated by a contractor and Sandia National Laboratory on land owned by the energy department and Texas Tech University, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Structures lost in Texas fire
Fires that had spotted off the Windy Deuce fire burned into the south side of the town of Fritch, Texas, this week and structures were lost, according to an update on the fire coordination center's website.
"This is an evolving situation and due to the complexity of the fire, there are no details on the number and type of structures that have been destroyed/damaged at this time," stated the update. It added that no injuries had been reported.
In a briefing Tuesday night, Jerry Langwell, Hutchinson County emergency management coordinator, said people would be “shocked” by the damage from the fires along the 13 miles between the towns of Fritch and Borger.
“I would say 50% of the structures between here and Borger are damaged in some way,” Langwell said during the briefing, broadcast live on Facebook. "There is still many, many fires still burning," he said, and the resources to fight those fires are "very thin."
Texas wildfires force evacuations, respiratory warnings
Mandatory evacuations are in effect in more than a half dozen Texas towns, the weather service said. The city of Canadian had been asked to shelter in place and several agencies were sending crews to help protect structures against the advancing flames, according to one of the coordination center updates. By evening, fire crews had been able to place a control line around Canadian to try to protect the town, but officials also warned that the fire had shown the ability to send burning embers over long distances.
Though the fire was 20 to 25 miles north of Amarillo, Texas, the weather service said, strong north winds are blowing a blanket of smoke into Amarillo, creating hazardous conditions for those with respiratory conditions.
Texas has seen record-high temperatures this week and parts of the Panhandle are "abnormally dry," according to the National Drought Monitor. Sixty-three counties in the state have burn bans in place, according to the fire service.
Large fires also are burning in Nebraska and Oklahoma. Evacuations were in effect in Northwestern Oklahoma, where one Texas wildfire doubled in size and crossed into the state on Tuesday, reported The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Other wildfires also had been reported in the state over the past few days.
Wildfire smoke map: Track fires and red flag warnings across the US
Where is the Smokehouse Creek Fire?
The Smokehouse Creek fire started Monday afternoon in the central Panhandle, one mile north of Sinnett, Texas, fueled by tall, dry grasses, high winds, and low humidity. Winds gusting over 40 to 50 mph pushed the fire east, about 30 miles on Tuesday north of Pampas, Texas, according to the fire coordination center updates
Contributing: Associated Press