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

Poor weather conditions that could fan the flames of the Texas fires are forecast to ramp up Friday and peak over the weekend, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

Following a cold front Tuesday night that quelled the growth of the fires, providing a slight reprieve for firefighters, gusty winds and dry air are expected to return to the Texas Panhandle through the weekend.

High temperatures are forecast to be between 70 to 80 degrees from Friday through Sunday, similar to temperatures at the time of the most extreme fire growth Tuesday. Wind gusts as high as 45 mph are forecast for this weekend, compared to gusts up to 65 mph during the fire-conducive weather Tuesday.

Here’s what the weather is expected to look like in the Texas Panhandle for the rest of this week:

Wednesday night: Low temperatures will be in the low 30s, with winds from 5 to 15 mph.

Thursday: Rain and snow showers are possible, with Amarillo potentially seeing less than an inch of snow. High temperatures will be in the upper 40s to low 50s, about 10 degrees lower than the average high for the area this time of year. Winds will strengthen to 15 to 20 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph.

Friday: Temperatures leaping into the upper 70s, dry air and turbulent winds will bring back dangerous fire weather conditions. Winds will increase to 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Saturday: The Storm Prediction Center could declare an elevated risk of fire weather for the area as higher wind gusts and dry air persist. High temperatures could reach 80 degrees, and winds are expected to increase to 20 to 25 mph with gusts as high as 37 mph.

Sunday: Above-average temperatures remain, with highs into the upper 70s. An even higher level of fire weather risk may exist because of the combination of dry air along with strong wind gusts peaking as high as 45 mph. Winds will pick up slightly from 20 to 30 mph.

An electricity provider that serves seven Texas Panhandle counties said it will need to restore approximately 115 miles of power lines that were in the path of wildfires.

The North Plains Electric Cooperative assessed the damage caused by the fires that burned through several of its rural power lines, knocking out electricity to some customers, it said.

“Our lines serve the area surrounding (the city of) Canadian, and there is extensive damage around the outskirts of the town and in the rural areas all the way to Glazier,” the company’s general manager, Randy Mahannah, said earlier Wednesday.

At least two of the company’s employees have lost their homes in the fires, Mahannah said.

As of Wednesday night, nearly 1,000 of the approximately 7,500 homes and businesses served by North Plains Electric were without power, mainly in Hemphill County, which includes the city of Canadian, according to the company’s outage tracker.

The company said it aims to have power fully restored by Monday.

Wildfires tearing through the Texas Panhandle are decimating precious farmland and leaving scores of dead cattle in their wake, a county official told the agricultural news publication Farm Progress.

“Thousands of cattle will be lost to this massive wildfire,” Hemphill County AgriLife Extension Agent Andy Holloway told Farm Progress.

“I know one rancher near (the city of) Canadian who lost 280 mama cows. They were calving so many of those are pairs. Another rancher lost more than 300 and one lost 50 or more 2-year-old replacements,” Holloway said.

In an email to CNN, Holloway said, “Just in my Hemphill County, Canadian, Texas … scores of homes destroyed and thousands of dead cattle.”

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said Wednesday that the state’s Panhandle is crucial to its agriculture industry.

“These fires not only threaten lives and property but will also have a substantial impact on our agriculture industry. Over 85% of the state’s cattle population is located on ranches in the Panhandle. There are millions of cattle out there, with some towns comprising more cattle than people,” Miller said in a news release.

The damage could be “catastrophic,” Miller said. “Farmers and ranchers are losing everything.”

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

The largest, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, has scorched 850,000 acres in Texas and has also stretched into Oklahoma, where it has burned nearly 31,600 acres as of Wednesday afternoon, according to an Oklahoma Forestry Services spokesperson. The blaze is closing in on the largest fire on record in Texas: the East Amarillo Complex fire, which burned 907,245 acres in 2006.

Since Monday, over 1,057,000 acres have been burned by the fires across both states, according to officials, with burned acreages still growing as most of the fires have little to no containment.

As of Wednesday night:

Smokehouse Creek Fire

Windy Deuce Fire

Grape Vine Creek Fire

Magenta Fire

687 Reamer Fire

Tyler McCain became emotional as he told CNN he and his family are “living in limbo” after fire reduced their home in the Texas Panhandle town of Fritch to rubble and ash Tuesday. But what’s really gnawing at him is trying to explain the loss to his tearful 3-year-old.

His toddler, Addison, can be seen crying in the family’s car in a heartbreaking video posted on Facebook. 

“Why are you crying?” McCain asks her. 

“I want (the) house,” Addison says through gulping sobs. Her father consoles her, saying, “We’ll get another house, OK?”

The McCains and their three daughters – the others 1 and 9 years old – were able to evacuate before flames engulfed their neighborhood, but they weren’t prepared for what they found when they returned to the home Wednesday, he said.

“I pulled into the driveway and started shaking,” he said. His wife yelled in anguish. He recalls thinking, “It’s gone. My house is gone.”

Seeing Addison cry over the home and ask for her burned belongings has broken him, McCain said.

“Everything she keeps asking for, I ask myself why I didn’t grab that. Her favorite stuffed animal – why didn’t I get it for her?” the father said. 

McCain does not know what comes next. He fears that whatever the family’s fire insurance covers will be used to pay the mortgage. For now, they have several family members to rely on for a safe place to stay.

“I keep telling myself to feel thankful and blessed that the fire did not spread in the night when we were sleeping,” McCain said. “A house is a house, but we’re all together and that’s where home is.”

Frank Probst bought his home in Fritch, Texas, six months ago, and on Tuesday watched it enveloped in flames in his rearview mirror as his family evacuated from an encroaching wildfire.

“My grandson had hollered at me about a fire, and I turned around and the flames were kind of rolling up over the roof behind me,” Probst said of his home in Fritch, roughly 40 miles northeast of Amarillo. An official has said “quite a few structures” were destroyed in Fritch, which also was dealing with power and gas outages.

Probst said he immediately went to check on his elderly neighbors right as the evacuation sirens went off Tuesday. They focused on getting the neighbors out first, and they were the last ones out, he said.

“It was in the rearview mirror. The flames rolled and it took my whole neighborhood at once,” Probst said of his Fritch home.

Probst’s family wasn’t able to grab any of their belongings before they had to rush to safety, he said.

“It happened so quick. By the time the evacuation sirens went off, it was too late,” he said.

With fire still surrounding the nearby roads, Probst said he, his wife, and their 6-year-old grandson had to sleep in the parking lot of a local grocery store Tuesday night.

Probst on Wednesday returned to where his home once stood.

“It’s all gone,” he said.

The Probst family is staying at a motel in Amarillo for now, and he said most of the homes they passed to get there have been destroyed. 

“Entire neighborhoods just gone,” Probst said.

One person has died as a result of a wildfire in hard-hit Hutchinson County, a county official said Wednesday afternoon.

“We do have one confirmed fatality from the Scotts Acres (neighborhood in Stinnett),” Hutchinson County Public Engagement Coordinator Deidra Thomas said.

While Thomas didn’t identify the victim, the family of Joyce Blankenship, 83, told CNN she died at her house in Stinnett.

Blankenship’s step-grandson, Lee Quesada, said she was well-known and beloved in the small community. Her husband, Jimmy, died in 2015. 

“She used to be a substitute teacher in the area before she became a housewife while Jimmy worked at the local Phillips refinery,” Quesada said. “She will be missed by all.”

Her other grandson, Nathan Blankenship, told CNN he and his father tried calling her several times on Tuesday as a massive fire swept through the area but recieved no response. The next day, they recieved news that she had died.

“The house was gone,” Nathan Blankenship said. “There was no way she could’ve gotten out.”

Nathan recalled fond memories of his grandparents at the house, where he often stayed as his father worked long shifts. Joyce would get him ready for school many mornings, he said.

“She has been my biggest proponent, sticking up for me,” he said. “She was my biggest advocate.”

The pair last spoke on February 19 when Nathan called to check in on her.

“I got to hear I love you one last time,” he said.

Thomas earlier Wednesday said fire had destroyed at least 20 structures in Stinnett.

At least 100 homes have been impacted by the wildfires in neighboring Hutchinson County, according to Moore County Emergency Management Coordinator Tommy Brooks. 

At least 20 structures in the city of Stinnett, structures outside the Borger city limits and “quite a few structures” in the city of Fritch have been destroyed, according to Hutchinson County Public Engagement Coordinator Deidra Thomas. Fritch is in Hutchinson and Moore counties.

Thomas said some fires are still active but most evacuation notices have been lifted.

Fritch residents are still dealing with power and gas outages. “Most infrastructure for power should likely be back tomorrow,” Thomas added.

Search and rescue operations are underway, Thomas said. Moore County is assisting with officials, including 11 from law enforcement, and one fire engine in Hutchinson County, Brooks said.

Moore and Hutchinson counties are north of Amarillo. About 20,000 people live in Hutchinson County, where the Smokehouse Creek Fire began Monday.

“The damage is bad. You would be shocked if you were to travel between here and Borger,” Hutchinson County emergency management coordinator Jerry Langwell told evacuees sheltering at the Celebration Family Church in Fritch on Tuesday night. 

Radio traffic between first responders in Hemphill County, Texas, shows the determined effort to protect residents and homes Tuesday from the fast-spreading Smokehouse Creek Fire threatening the area around the town of Canadian.

“If y’all can make it through there, I could use you in town,” a man says Tuesday on one call, according to the Hemphill Volunteer Fire channel on Broadcastify. “We’ve got (inaudible) houses burning.”

“We’re just going to protect the ones that we can protect.”

In some cases, firefighters could be heard requesting units to respond to a resident’s house by name.

“I need a truck’s assistance here at (resident’s name) house … The house is OK, but the deck’s on fire. We’re trying to get the deck knocked out,” the firefighter says.

Firefighters responded to reports of multiple trapped people, including an elderly couple who told authorities that they had fire in their yard, but that neither of them were able to drive.

Some homes burned in the Canadian area, officials have said, adding they still were assessing the damage Wednesday. Evacuations and road closures in Canadian were lifted as of early Wednesday afternoon, according to InciWeb, a clearinghouse for US fire information.

A sudden shift of wind direction in the Texas Panhandle this week contributed to the explosion in size of the Smokehouse Creek wildfire, which has burned at least 850,000 acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

“Wind was coming straight out of the north and made just this massive wall of fire moving across the landscape,” spokesperson Adam Turner told CNN Wednesday.

Local communities have confirmed a number of homes destroyed, but Turner said there are no confirmed deaths. Calmer winds are helping efforts to hold the line on the fire Wednesday, and firefighters are using that opportunity to prepare for stronger gusts later this week.

“When the winds do pick back up this weekend, we will have people, resources, all kinds of things here ready to go,” Turner said. That will include firefighting aircraft, which he expects to arrive in the region by Friday.

An active firefight could rage on for days as fires continue to grow and with more adverse weather on the horizon.

“We don’t have all the fires out. We are still currently fighting fires,” Troy Schwiegerath, Emergency Management Coordinator for City of Pampa and Gray County Texas told CNN.

Pampa and Gray County are located northeast of Amarillo.

“It’s going to burn forever. We’ve going to have three more days of fire,” Troy said.

Schwiegerath says the Texas Forest Service is there in en mass helping fight the fires.

“Thank God the winds stopped,” Troy said. He says firefighters were able to get a plan together and save the city of Pampa last night. Other towns weren’t so lucky. 

There are no injuries or deaths in Gray County, Schwiegerath said. It will take days to get an accurate count on what has burned, he said.

“We lost cattle, we lost grass, we lost a fence,” Schwiegerath said. “We just had a meeting this morning to come together, city and County officials. We’re trying to get organized.” 

Troy says local leaders are trying to set up a system to receive donations. 

“We need cash donations. Feed and hay. Fencing material type,” Troy said. 

The cattle industry is big in Gray County. Troy says they have no idea how many cattle were lost to the fires. 

Fires have destroyed at least 13 homes in Oklahoma, according to the state’s emergency management office. Some wildfires burning in the Texas Panhandle crossed into Oklahoma Tuesday as they grew explosively.

The 13 homes burned in the following counties:

There are no active evacuations in the state Wednesday, Oklahoma Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said.

New drone images show the aftermath of the wildfire that torched parts of Hutchinson County, Texas.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest among at least five other active fires in the Texas Panhandle, continues to burn uncontained, leaving charred homes and buildings in its wake.

But officials say the images revealed something else: a 7-mile prescribed burn that was conducted a few months ago. Burning parts of the land on purpose, known as controlled or prescribed burn, can help future wildfires from spreading.

Officials with the City of Borger’s Office of Emergency Management say the prescribed burn “prevented the fire flank from spreading” into the southern parts of the town, including Meadowlark, Country Club and Bunavista areas.

“As much damage as we do have, our proactive efforts did prevent even more,” Hutchinson officials said in a Facebook post.

Wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma have burned so much land that the scorched ground left behind is visible from space.

Satellite imagery captured burn scars stretching from the Texas Panhandle into western Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon, showing just how much carnage the blazes have already wrought, even as fires continue to burn. 

Burn scars are often a combination of burned plant life, debris and an altered layer of soil. In the satellite imagery above, the burn scar appears an ashen charcoal gray and black against the brown ground surrounding it.

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A dramatic video shows the moment a fire crew drove into the heart of the flames of the massive Smokehouse Creek fire Tuesday.

Towering flames lap at the sides of a bridge as they plow forward. A fire whirl pirouettes its way toward the vehicle – a sign of how intense the conditions were inside the fire zone.

Fire whirls form when the air near the ground gets superheated and rises quickly into strong swirling winds, causing a column of fire to rotate around it.

Fire whirls are one of the criteria that meteorologists use to define extreme fire behavior because they help accelerate the spread of flames to new areas, and in their most intense form, as a fire tornado, can cause wind-related destruction much like a tornado.

Nearly half of Texas could see clouds with a touch of smoky haze Wednesday afternoon from the wildfires raging across the Texas Panhandle, with some cities already seeing poor air quality as the smoke tracks southward. 

The air pollution in Lubbock rose to unhealthy levels on Tuesday, but then improved slightly to a level that’s unhealthy specifically for sensitive groups — like the elderly, young children and those with respiratory issues, according to IQAir.

Smoke is forecast to push farther south over much of western Texas and reach parts of northern Mexico Wednesday afternoon. Then the wind direction will shift Wednesday evening, clearing the air for much of Texas – with the exception of the Panhandle.

Overnight, dense smoke may spread north and choke the air in parts of the Oklahoma Panhandle and western Kansas.

Wildfire smoke contains very tiny particulate matter, or PM2.5 — a tiny air pollutant that when inhaled can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires, and has been linked to a number of health problems including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses. 

Millions of people die each year from air pollution-related issues. In 2016, around 4.2 million premature deaths were associated with fine particulate matter, according to the World Health Organization. A recent study also found that the annual exposure to wildfire smoke results in more than 30,000 deaths across the 43 countries analyzed in the study. 

A 30-year resident of Fritch, Texas – one of the hardest hit communities from the panhandle’s wildfires – says he was astonished by the speed of the destruction.

Williams’ house still stands, but he saw neighbors lose their homes.

“It all went up in less than a half hour once the fire got to us,” Williams said. “The [Department of Public Safety] got everybody out so we couldn’t watch it happen. We probably got back to our neighborhood by 5 or 6 p.m. yesterday, and by then, four homes across the street were completely gone.”

The sun has risen on the Texas Panhandle and revealed the charred, ashen remnants of towns overrun by raging wildfires.

These photos capture some of the initial views from the ground Wednesday.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has charred hundreds of thousands of acres in the Texas Panhandle as of Wednesday morning, and ranks among the largest fires on record in the state.

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Crews from different parts of Texas are coming together to help fight the raging Smokehouse Creek Fire. One crew from the Fort Worth Fire Department traveled nearly 300 miles to assist.

Along the way, firefighters captured dramatic video of smoke from the massive fire blocking out the sky, tinting the entire area in an eerie sepia hue.

In the video, glowing orange flames rage on the side of the road, their advance thwarted by pavement but threatening to jump to the other side.

As the crew drives deeper into the smoke, burning embers blow across the vehicle’s windshield as everything turns orange.

Emerging from the thickest smoke, the video shows bright flames burning on both sides of the roadway.

With a fire as large as Smokehouse Creek, impacts spread beyond what burns. Smoke from this fire is forecast to overspread the western half of Texas through the afternoon before winds shift later Wednesday evening.

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

“Luckily, no one was severely injured,” Terrill Bartlett, the mayor of Canadian, Texas, told CNN. “No one lost their lives, but there there were quite a few homes 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.” 

“Every time the tone on the pager goes off, they just really do heroic effort,” the mayor added. 

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.

“Under a warmer future climate, we can see that the fire danger will even be higher in the winter,” Guo Yu, assistant research professor at the Desert Research Institute, said in a statement. “This surprised me, because it feels counterintuitive, but climate change will alter the landscape in so many ways.”

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.  

“Fuels are drier than previously thought,” the National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas, cautioned Tuesday as the Smokehouse Creek Fire grew rapidly. 

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.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire grew from a 40,000-acre fire Tuesday morning to a 500,000-acre monster as of Wednesday morning.

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

The fire has now charred an area of Texas land more than half the size of Rhode Island and 11 times the size of Washington, DC.

Multiple wildfires ignited Monday afternoon and exploded in size Tuesday, tearing across the Texas Panhandle amid unseasonably warm, dry and windy conditions.

The largest of these fires – the Smokehouse Creek Fire – burned 500,000 acres in less than 48 hours and prompted evacuations in multiple counties. Wildfires continue to grow Wednesday as firefighters struggle to contain them.

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.

The city of Fritch, Texas, is asking for outside help to bring their water system back online after a massive wildfire knocked out power.

City officials said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning that they need a 75,000-volt industrial generator “to help get our water back up.”

The town was previously urged to conserve water amid the firefight.

Fritch is near two active wildfires, one of which is the enormous Smokehouse Creek Fire, which has burned 500,000 acres as of Wednesday morning with 0% containment.

Parts of the town were urged to evacuate Tuesday.

The fast-moving fires in the Texas Panhandle have left some farmers and ranchers scrambling to protect their property.

“I am deeply concerned about the devastating wildfires raging through the Texas Panhandle,” Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement.

“These fires not only threaten lives and property but also have a significant impact on our agriculture industry. We stand in solidarity with our farmers and ranchers facing loss and destruction. Our thoughts are with them during this challenging time, and we’re committed to supporting their recovery efforts every step of the way,” the statement continued.

At the Turkey Track Ranch near Stinnett, Texas, workers were forced to cut fences on Tuesday as they worked to move cattle away from the flames of the Smokehouse Creek Fire.

“We’ve lost cattle. Not sure what is alive and isn’t,” said Katlyn Butler, whose husband works at the ranch.

“The effects of wildfire on the animal agriculture community can be devastating. Please keep those affected and those responding to fires in the panhandle of Texas in your thoughts,” the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a statement Tuesday night.

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.

“The damage is bad. You would be shocked if you were to travel between here and Borger,” Hutchinson County emergency management coordinator Jerry Langwell told evacuees sheltering at the Celebration Family Church in Fritch, Texas, on Tuesday night.

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.

The blazes “still have enough fuel to keep going,” National Weather Service Amarillo Meteorologist Christian Rangel told CNN Tuesday night.

“We have had a high wind and fire event go through … (and) right now at our office, we are getting gusts up to 35 mph,” Rangel said, adding the winds have switched directions – something forecasters had warned would happen and could help flames expand in a different direction.

There have been reports of damage, including burned structures, in the areas that are under fire warnings and had to be evacuated, Rangel said.

Winds will be strong until early Wednesday morning and humidities should begin to rise Tuesday night, he added.

“Wednesday we are not outlooked for critical fire weather conditions,” Rangel said. 

In a Facebook post Tuesday evening, the city of Fritch — roughly 30 miles northeast of Amarillo — warned residents who were south of Highway 136 to “EVACUATE NOW,” warning the flames had jumped the road.

City officials also urged residents not to use a lot of water to help with firefighters’ efforts to battle the flames.

“Pressure is down on the city water wells due to loss of electricity. We are currently working to resolve this issue. PLEASE keep water usage to a minimum, so we can keep pressure up enough to fill fire trucks,” officials said in a post.

Authorities in at least two Oklahoma counties are also asking residents to evacuate after a wildfire in Texas jumped the state line, an Oklahoma official told CNN Tuesday evening.

“There are evacuation orders currently in effect for Roger Mills and Ellis counties,” Oklahoma Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said. “The fire in Roger Mills County is the fire that crossed over from Texas.”

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, which has burned through 250,000 acres so far, is believed to be the blaze that crossed over.

“Earlier in the day there were additional evacuations in Texas and Beaver counties in the Oklahoma panhandle,” Cain added.

The Crawford, Oklahoma, Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue encouraged all residents from Durham west to the state line and north of Durham “to evacuate due to large wildfire and expected wind change,” in a post on Facebook. Crawford is in Roger Mills County.

The Crawford, Oklahoma, Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue encouraged all residents from Durham west to the state line and north of Durham “to evacuate due to large wildfire and expected wind change,” in a post on Facebook. Crawford is in Roger Mills County.

In the town of Arnett in Ellis County, roughly 40 miles north of Crawford, officials warned residents Tuesday evening: “Start your evacuations now.”

The ongoing wildfires have been largely driven by high winds and dry air. And high wind warnings and red flag warnings remain in effect in the region until 8 p.m. local time.

“The Texas A&M Forest Service reports that several large wildfires ignited yesterday under warm, dry, and windy conditions across the Texas Panhandle,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “Strong forecasted winds will likely impact these wildfires, causing them to grow larger. There is a possibility for wildfire activity to occur where an abundant amount of dormant grasses are present on the landscape in areas near and around them, including the Panhandle, South Plains, Texoma, and Permian Basin regions.”

Parts of East Texas are also under increased wildfire risk, he said.

Now, there’s a mix of good and bad news coming up.

A cold front that’s pushing through the area Tuesday evening will bring cooler air and shift winds. While winds may grow weaker, they may also help spread the flames in a different direction – they’ve so far been spreading eastward, and the wind change could help lead them southward.

“A cold front is rushing down from the north and for firefighters, this is a dangerous game because the wind has been out of the west all day, now the wind is out of the north,” CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers said Tuesday. “The firefighters, the personnel, they have to stay out of the way of that wind shift.”

But the cool air also brings good news: the cold air mass pushing into the region has a much higher relative humidity than the dry air that has been feeding the fires Tuesday, which is going to limit the fire risk as the night into Wednesday gets colder.

That fire-weather threat will be much lower Wednesday, and though some gusty winds and patches of air could combine to cause concerns in southern Texas as well, the threat is expected to be brief and not widespread.

The city of Pampa said Tuesday evening it was “suggesting” a voluntary evacuation due to the threat of the raging wildfires spreading rapidly. The suggested evacuation was lifted later Tuesday night.

Pampa is roughly 50 miles northeast of Amarillo and 40 miles southwest of Canadian, where residents have been urged to shelter in place. Several blazes were raging nearby, including the Grape Vine Creek Fire and the massive Smokehouse Creek Fire, which had scorched at least 250,000 acres by Tuesday evening.

“We are now suggesting a voluntary evacuation for the City of Pampa. Go south 70 to i40 and go to Amarillo area or Clarendon,” the city said in a post earlier Tuesday on Facebook. 

The Grape Vine Creek Fire is burning in Gray County – where Pampa is – and has already scorched 30,000 acres. It was 20% contained Tuesday afternoon, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. 

“At this time sheriffs will be going door to door to SUGGEST evacuation North of County Line Road on Highway 70,” city officials said in a Facebook post Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday night, officials said the suggested evacuation for the city was lifted, but added personnel were still fighting the flames.

“We will keep everyone informed if there are any changes,” the city said on Facebook.

CNN has reached out to the mayor for further information.

In a statement on Facebook, the Canadian Independent School District said no classes will be held on Wednesday.

The nearby Smokehouse Creek Fire blaze remained 0% contained Tuesday evening.

“We will reassess tomorrow and let everyone know what the plans are for Thursday and Friday,” Superintendent Lynn Pulliam said in the post. “I hope everyone is safe.”

Melanie McQuiddy, the manager of a small boutique motel in Canadian, Texas, told CNN she closed down her business and evacuated town as flames approached.

“It looks like Armageddon. All the trees are covered in white ash,” she told CNN over the phone. McQuiddy said she watched the fire burn all night when they were about 10 miles away. 

McQuiddy’s daughter, Brooke McQuiddy, said she has friends who got stuck in Canadian after evacuation orders went out.

She said they were told to head over to Canadian High School for shelter.

“They are at the high school football field where multiple residents are together and are literally watching the flames start to take over Canadian,” she said.

“It’s been rapidly, rapidly moving, ” Brooke McQuiddy said right after learning that a friend’s home in the outskirts of Canadian had burned down.

Melanie McQuiddy said her home is also on the outskirts of town, and she prays it’s still standing. 

As for the motel – The Last Cowboy’s Court – McQuiddy told CNN it was built in 1948 out of cinderblock with a metal roof. “There’s a chance if (the wildfire) moves fast enough, it will burn around us,” she said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties in response to wildfire activity, saying more counties could be added.

“The State of Texas stands ready to provide support to our local partners and deploy all resources needed to protect our fellow Texans and their property. Hot and dry conditions caused by high temperatures and windy conditions are expected to continue in the region in the coming days,” the governor said in a statement.

Those conditions could mean the wildfires continue to grow larger and more dangerous, Abbott added.

“Texans are urged to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe,” he said. “I also want to thank the brave firefighters and first responders who are working tirelessly to protect their fellow Texans.”

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, which had scorched at least 250,000 acres by Tuesday afternoon, already ranks as the fifth largest wildfire in Texas history, according to records from the Texas A&M Forest Service.

And it’s burned more land than all of the state’s fires in 2023 combined, according to information from the forest service.

The fire began at roughly 2:20 p.m. on Monday, according to fire authorities. It scorched through 250,000 acres in just 28 hours – meaning it burned a staggering average of nearly 9,000 acres per hour, or roughly 150 acres per minute.

“That is the size of two football fields per second,” CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers said Tuesday.

An out-of-control wildfire is threatening Texas Panhandle towns and forcing residents to evacuate.

Various evacuations were ordered throughout the day on Tuesday. Here’s where they are in effect:

Millions of people in the south-central US are also under red flag warnings Tuesday as springlike warmth, gusty winds and dry air create dangerous fire weather.

Authorities in Hemphill County, Texas, are recommending residents in the city of Canadian shelter in place due to the ongoing wildfire threat. 

“We recommend sheltering in place in Canadian at this time. The high school gym in Canadian will be open soon if anyone is traveling though and needs shelter,” the Hemphill County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday afternoon in a Facebook post.

The sheriff’s office has shut down US Route 60 and US Route 83 South — a key route for the city. 

In a post earlier, the county emergency management issued a mandatory evacuation and asked residents to “LEAVE NOW.”

Canadian is more than 100 miles northeast of Amarillo. 

The largest wildfire burning in the Texas Panhandle has exploded to 200,000 acres Tuesday afternoon, according to the latest update from the Texas A&M Forest Service. 

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, located in Hutchinson County, has been not contained.

Scherer went on to say she knows of at least one house that has been hit by the fire and that they’ve had fires before but those haven’t had any come through the town “since 1991 or 92.” 

Stinnett is located in Hutchinson County and is northeast of Lake Meredith. 

CNN’s Sarah Engel contributed to this report.

There are at least four growing and dangerous wildfires burning across the Texas Panhandle as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer.

The fires have sparked evacuation orders for communities in the region.

The four fires have charred more than 280,000 acres.

Here are where the wildfires are and the containment statuses:

Smokehouse Creek Fire:

Windy Deuce Fire:

Grape Vine Creek Fire:

Juliet Pass Fire

NOTE: Some of these fires are crossing over into other counties causing impacts.