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

Many homes on the perimeter of Canadian, Texas, have been burned by the rapidly growing Smokehouse Creek Fire, Hemphill County Judge Lisa Johnson told The Canadian Record, an independent weekly newspaper in the Texas Panhandle.

“Homes have burned in almost every direction,” Johnson told the Record.

It is unclear how many homes and businesses have been impacted.

Firefighting resources are stretched thin as emergency personnel respond to several fires stretching across the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma, Johnson said. "We’re just doing the best we can," she added.

The city, which is the seat of Hemphill County, was under an evacuation order Tuesday until road closures prompted officials to ask people to shelter in place. Many people were able to leave the city, but about 50 were sheltering at a local church, Johnson said.

State and local authorities have been going door-to-door doing welfare checks and an emergency command center will monitor the fires overnight, she added.

Texas' Hutchinson County, which includes the cities of Borger and Fritch, is dealing with a "disaster" as fires have caused significant damage to homes and businesses and caused power outages and water shortages, a county official said.

Hundreds of people were sheltering at the church Tuesday as several parts of the county were urged to evacuate, including Fritch.

Due to infrastructure damage from the fires, water pumps are not operational in Fritch, and the city is anticipating widespread power outages, Langwell said in a Facebook livestream.

Nearly 2,000 people in the county were without power late Tuesday night, according to PowerOutage.us.

Firefighting resources in the county are also stretched thin as they battle blazes in several directions, Langwell said. Gov. Greg Abbott's office is sending aerial firefighting equipment and two disaster recovery task forces to the county, Langwell added.

Though Borger and other areas had not yet been ordered to evacuate Tuesday night, the county emergency management office urged people to stay alert and have a bag packed in case they need to move quickly.

"We have so many fires going in the county that it is extremely hard to keep everyone on the same page while they actively respond on the front lines. Pray for the safety of all involved. And pack your go bag just in case," the office said on Facebook.

A local state of disaster has been declared for the Texas Panhandle city of Amarillo, Texas, and Potter and Randall counties as a raging wildfire advances toward the area, according to the Amarillo Area Office of Emergency Management. Amarillo is in Potter County, and Randall County is adjacent, to the south.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued for the Mesilla Park subdivision north of Amarillo but the order was lifted overnight. "Other areas are not currently being impacted," the emergency management office said in a Facebook post.

Smoke from the sprawling fires is streaming southward into the Amarillo area, making air quality poor, the National Weather Service office in Amarillo said.

The disaster declaration notifies state officials that the region needs emergency assistance and additional resources to respond to the fires.

At least five growing wildfires were threatening communities in the Texas Panhandle as of early Wednesday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer.

So far, more than 370,000 acres have been burned by the fires, according to the forest service.

The threat has sparked evacuation orders and shelter-in-place advisories for several communities in the region.

Here are the current wildfire statuses:

Smokehouse Creek Fire

Windy Deuce Fire

Grape Vine Creek Fire

687 Reamer Fire

Magenta Fire

Note: The fires listed above are crossing over into other Texas counties and causing impacts, and some flames have moved into Oklahoma. It wasn't immediately clear if any of the burned acres described above were in Oklahoma. Also, the Juliet Pass Fire, which was burning earlier Tuesday around Texas' Armstrong County, has been 100% contained after scorching nearly 3,000 acres.

Wildfires ripping through swaths of the Texas Panhandle on Tuesday were encroaching on roads, filling the air with blinding smoke and lighting up the night's sky, according to video from CNN and local officials.

Video taken by CNN from a plane arriving in Amarillo, Texas, Tuesday night shows flames streaking across the land below.

No fire had reached Amarillo as of 6 p.m., the fire department said. But a little under two hours later, the department said it and other agencies were battling flames that were moving south toward the city on both sides of Highway 136. At least three active fires are burning north of the city.

The colossal Smokehouse Creek Fire was seen creeping over a roadway in Hutchinson County, which includes the city of Canadian, blowing dark smoke over dry roadside grasses and brush, video shared Tuesday by the Texas A&M Forest Service shows.

"Crews are building fireline and engaged in structure protection in Canadian at this time. Fire behavior remains active," the agency said.

Firefighters from Greenville, Texas, have been deployed to help battle blazes near Canadian and Wheeler. They captured an image of flames licking the edges of parts of a road ahead of them on Tuesday.

A medical system in Canadian, Texas, says it has safely evacuated its hospital patients and the residents of two residential care facilities as wildfires threaten the area.

The Hemphill County Hospital District relocated its inpatients, as well as residents at Mesa View Senior Living and Mesa View Assisted Living, to the city of Pampa, about 50 miles to the southwest of Canadian, according to a Facebook post.

Canadian was under a mandatory evacuation order Tuesday afternoon, but officials later recommended residents shelter in place due to road closures, the Hemphill County Sheriff's office said on Facebook.

"Prayers of safety for our residents, patients, and entire community and region!" the medical system said.

Canadian is about 100 miles northeast of Amarillo.

More than 200 people are sheltering in a church in Fritch, Texas, after raging wildfires forced people to flee their homes Tuesday afternoon, church leaders say.

"We have a lot of people at the facility who confirmed they lost their homes," Celebration Family Church pastor Dwight Kirksey told CNN. "Of course, they're devastated and heartbroken."

A team of more than 50 volunteers has been consoling the displaced community members, said Kirksey, who also serves as Hutchinson County commissioner.

"They've been comforting the needs of the heart with hugs and embraces and letting them know that they're here with us and alive and we'll get through this."

Outside, thick smoke has darkened the sky and reduced visibility to about 100 yards or less, Kirksey said. Bobby Mac, a church elder, said some homes can be seen burning from the church.

Several people sheltering at the church initially tried to ride out the blaze but had to flee when flames reached their homes, Mac said.

Mac described the residents of West Texas as tough and resilient, so he's not surprised they decided to hunker down.

"But when a wildfire is blowing through your town there's not a whole lot you can do," he said. 

In Moore County, Texas — where the Windy Deuce Fire had scorched at least 20,000 acres by Tuesday night — the local sheriff said authorities were still battling "active uncontrolled fires."

"We have seen tragedy today and we have seen miracles," the Moore County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. "Today was a historic event we hope never happens again. The panhandle needs prayers."

Deputies were assisting authorities from neighboring Hutchinson County with evacuations, the sheriff's office said.

The sheriff's office had earlier said there were emergency evacuation alerts in several communities, warning residents it was "imperative to evacuate the area for your safety and well-being."

Towering columns of smoke approached an 80,000-acre ranch outside of Stinnett, Texas, Tuesday, where employees stayed behind to move cattle out of the blaze's path, a ranch worker's spouse told CNN.

“We cut the fences and unfortunately had to get out due to firefighters having to go save communities," said Katlyn Butler, whose husband works at Turkey Track Ranch.

Ranch workers had no time to evacuate livestock as the rapidly growing Smokehouse Creek Fire tore toward them.

Video shared by Butler shows a group of cattle running in the opposite direction of plumes of glowing smoke and fire. They trampled over tufts of brittle, dry grasses that may serve as more fuel for the wildfire.

“We’ve lost cattle. Not sure what is alive and isn’t," Butler said.