February 27-28, 2024 -- Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas

No one was killed in a Texas town at the epicenter of the out-of-control Smokehouse Creek Fire, but homes have been burned.

The town's emergency services are still assessing the damage, according to Bartlett, and trying to figure out ways to relocate the residents who have lost their homes.

About half the town of Canadian managed to evacuate and others were forced to shelter in place as wind shifts pushed flames in several different directions, Bartlett said.

The shifting winds "made first responders (face) a very difficult situation that were trying to fight the fire,” Bartlett told CNN. “And I might also add that most of the firefighters in this area are all volunteer, so these people leave their homes and families to put their lives in risk.” 

The rapid growth of intense wildfires burning across portions of Texas and Oklahoma was captured from space Tuesday afternoon.

Satellite data shows how wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph pushed flames east quickly, before a strong cold front sliced through and shifted the wind direction. All fires then also changed direction and spread southward during the late afternoon.

Heat from the fires shows up as bright orange on the satellite. The cold front in the satellite imagery appears as a curved line of bubbly clouds moving from north to south. The front starts near the Texas and Oklahoma border at the beginning of the loop and arrives south of the fires by the end of the loop.

On an episode of The Assignment with Audie Cornish, two former firefighters speak with Audie Cornish about what it is like fight fire in the face of increasing danger, and why they left to join the front lines of fighting climate change.

“Firefighting is only one piece of addressing climate change within this space. It's also land management, community planning. It's policy. And that's where there's the chance for a set of changes to help moving forward,” says Megan Fitzgerald McGowan, a former firefighter who now works at a program focused on teaching people how to adapt to a life of fire risk at the National Fire Prevention Association.

Riva Duncan also a former fire fighter now lobbies Congress for better pay and benefits for federal fire workers because what was once considered a seasonal job is now year-round work. She's vice president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters and says climate change is a specter hovering over their work, “…it's impacting their mental health or it's impacting their family life. And we have a much higher divorce rate in wildland fire, much higher suicide rate in wildland fire. But these tied directly to climate change because of these longer fire seasons.”

Listen and follow The Assignment with Audie Cornish wherever you get your podcasts.

Editor’s note: This episode originally aired on August 17, 2023, after the Maui wildfires.

People who evacuated from the town of Fritch, Texas, as the massive Smokehouse Creek wildfire approached are being warned that destruction in the area is significant.

“The easiest way to put this is, I don’t think a lot of folks that live in the Fritch area are probably going to be prepared for what they’re going to see as they pull into town,” Hutchinson County Emergency Management spokesperson Deidra Thomas said in a Facebook update to residents.

“There are still homes that are on fire,” Thomas added.

The main road into the heavily damaged south side of Fritch is still closed, Thomas advised. “Right now, we can’t let you in,” she said. “It is not safe to do that.”

The fire also knocked out water service in the town.

The extreme conditions driving the explosive growth of the Texas fires have calmed after a cold front moved through Tuesday evening, but they won't last.

Temperatures were in the 70s with 40 to 45 mph sustained winds and gusts up to 65 mph at the time of the most extreme fire growth Tuesday.

Here's how the weather will play out in the Texas Panhandle fire zone in the coming days:

Wednesday: High temperatures will be in the 50s with light winds. The winds will begin to pick up again this evening, creating new challenges.

Thursday: A very light rain and snow mix is possible. Any snow accumulation would remain below 0.5 inches. The high temperature will remain in the 50s, but winds will be stronger, 15 to 20 mph with wind gusts up to 30 mph.

Friday through the weekend: Dangerous fire weather conditions return as temperatures rise into the upper 70s, drier air arrives and winds increase to 20 to 30 mph, with even stronger gusts.

Human-caused climate change has exacerbated the hot and dry conditions that have allowed wildfires to ignite, grow and increase in severity in recent years.

Researchers say that as the planet warms, the United States could see an overall increase in the conditions that make wildfire possible, and could also experience a prolonged wildfire season -- even during the winter months.

A recent study that Yu authored found wildfire risk will increase by an average of 10 days across the continental US in the coming years, largely due to warmer temperatures.

Certain regions, like the southern Great Plains, including Texas, are projected to face more than 40 additional days per year of extreme wildfire danger as temperatures warm, according to the study.

Wildfires like those scorching parts of Texas now burn longer and are becoming hotter in places where they have always occurred. Globally, the number of extreme wildfire events is expected to increase up to 14% by 2030, according to a UN analysis. By 2050, the increase will climb to 30%.

The Smokehouse Fire has torn across hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas land since igniting Monday afternoon. Its explosive spread is tied directly to the dry, warm and windy conditions that dominated the Texas Panhandle Monday and Tuesday.

Since the fire started, it has spread at an average rate of 150 football fields every minute.

Fire spread depends on the availability of dry fuels -- like dried out grass and dying plants -- and wind behavior.

Abundant dry fuels allow a fire to continue to consume what's in its path unabated, but fires are not able to ignite or spread as quickly when fuels are damp or wet. The fire’s heat energy must be first used to evaporate water before it can burn through: It’s like trying to light a damp match — nearly impossible.  

Wind direction and wind speed affect where and how fast fire spreads. Wind gusts on Monday and Tuesday maxed out at 40 to 60 mph over the Texas Panhandle, allowing to fire to spread dangerously-fast.

Even dry areas located away from a fire are still at risk if winds are strong enough. Burning embers are easily lofted into the air and spread to unburned areas by gusty winds.

While the most extreme conditions fueling the flames have eased in the wake of a cold front, breezy weather Wednesday may continue to challenge the firefighters trying to get these blazes under control.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned 500,000 acres since igniting Monday afternoon, making it the second-largest wildfire on record in Texas, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

It remains completely uncontained and is likely to grow further.

The largest wildfire was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which consumed more than 900,000 acres, according to Texas A&M.