By Scott Dance, Washington Post
As snow showers moved across the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, easing conditions for firefighters, a wildfire grew into the state’s largest on record, with fears it could again spread rapidly when hot and windy weather returns this weekend.
Smokehouse Creek fire had burned 1,050,000 acres in Texas by early Thursday morning, and it had also spread across 25,000 acres into Oklahoma, the Texas A&M Forest Service said. Another fire, the 687 Reamer fire, had also spread into the footprint of the Smokehouse Creek fire.
The fires killed one person, an 83-year-old woman in the town of Stinnett, Tex., the Associated Press reported.
In Hemphill County, which includes the city of Canadian, there were no reports of anyone unaccounted for, the Canadian Record posted on Facebook, but Texas A&M extension officials shared images on social media of destroyed homes and singed farmland, saying “scores” of homes had been destroyed and thousands of cattle lost there.
If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.
