The fire, which has burnt about 4,400 square kilometres in Texas, continues to endanger numerous houses and structures, and authorities have yet to adequately determine the extent of the damage or the number of victims. Cindy Owen was one of the victims. She was driving in Hemphill County, south of Canada, on Tuesday afternoon when she came across the fire or smoke. According to Sgt Chris Ray of the state Department of Public Safety, when she got out of her truck, she was enveloped in flames. A passerby discovered Owen and alerted first responders, who transported her to a burn unit in Oklahoma. Ray said she died as a result of her injuries Thursday morning.
The other victim was Joyce Blankenship, an 83-year-old former substitute teacher. Her grandson, Lee Quesada, said deputies told his uncle on Wednesday that Blankenship’s remains had been discovered in her burned-out home. The blazing wildfire has also left a grim landscape of burnt prairie, dead livestock, and burned-out homes in the Texas Panhandle. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said up to 500 structures could have been damaged by the fire, and damage assessments are underway. “When you look at the damages that have occurred here, it’s just gone, completely gone, nothing left but ashes on the ground,” Abbott said during a news conference in Borger, Texas.
The Texas A&M Forest Service reports that the fire, which has combined with another fire, is now 15% contained
The Texas A&M Forest Service reports that the fire, which has combined with another fire, is now 15% contained, up from 3% on Thursday. However, the National Weather Service predicts that weather conditions will increase throughout the weekend, increasing the risk of wildfires in regions of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico. The NWS office in Amarillo, Texas, said that temperatures in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles will reach 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) on Saturday and Sunday, with wind gusts reaching 50 mph by Sunday. The relative humidity will be relatively low, ranging from 5 to 10% throughout the weekend.
The Smokehouse Creek fire is the largest of three major flames raging in the state’s rural Panhandle, and it has expanded to Oklahoma. The forest service stated that personnel will focus on the fire’s northern flank and the areas surrounding structures. The fire has transformed the rural area known for scrub brush, ranchland, rocky canyons, and oil rigs into a desolation of scorched dirt and dark skies. Authorities have not determined the source of the fires, but they have been exacerbated by strong winds, dry grass, and unusually warm temperatures. The previous record for the largest fire in Texas history was the 2006 East Amarillo Complex fire, which destroyed around 1,400 square miles (3,600 square kilometers) and killed 13 people.