The biggest wildfire in Texas history spread to a devastating 1 million acres, officials said Thursday morning, prompting widespread evacuations and leaving at least one person dead, as the fire surpasses the total acreage of the more than 25,000 wildfires in Texas over the last three years combined.
The Smokehouse Creek fire in Texas has burned more than 1 million acres, making it the biggest in ... [+]
The Smokehouse Creek fire, north of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, has scorched more than 1.07 million acres as of Thursday morning, and is only 3% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The fire, which grew to 250,000 acres Tuesday afternoon before high winds and dry conditions allowed it to quickly escalate, has prompted evacuation orders in the communities of Canadian, Glazier and Higgins, as well as parts of Hemphill and Roberts counties, while Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) issued a disaster declaration for 60 northern Texas counties.
Officials in Hutchinson County confirmed Wednesday night the fire had claimed the life of an 83-year-old woman in the city of Stinnett, multiple outlets reported, though with a thorough search yet to be conducted, the death toll could escalate, the Amarillo Globe News reported.
The fire has also forced a major nuclear weapons assembly plant outside Amarillo to halt operations “until further notice,” though officials at the Pantex plant said weapons and materials remain “safe and unaffected” by the fire.
Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall compared the fire’s aftermath to a “moonscape,” telling the Associated Press: “It’s just all gone.”
Strong winds up to 60 mph continue to accelerate the fire’s rapid spread, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Guy Pearson, though potential rain in the forecast could assist firefighters Thursday afternoon.
What caused the fire, which began Monday afternoon in rural Hutchinson County. In a span of just 24 hours, it was able to spread from 100,000 acres to a whopping 500,000 acres, one of a handful of fires burning northern Texas. As of Thursday morning, the state’s second-largest active fire, the Grape Vine Creek fire, has burned roughly 30,000 acres east of Amarillo. The Texas A&M Fire Service estimates that fire is 60% contained.
907,245 acres. That was the size of Texas’ East Amarillo Complex wildfire in 2006, previously the biggest in the state’s history—and by a longshot. The second biggest came in 1988, when the Big Country fire scorched an estimated 366,000 acres, while 2017’s Perryton fire —the third largest in state history—burned more than 318,000 acres, according to the Texas A&M Fire Service.
While Texas has had its fair share of devastating wildfires, the state is not known for the scale of massive wildfires more common in the Rocky Mountains and the West Coast. Last year, just over 7,500 wildfires ravaged an area roughly 205,000 acres large, a fraction of the 650,712 acres that burned in more than 12,000 fires in 2022 but on par with the amount of damage caused in state wildfires between 2019 and 2021. In California, the average annual destruction from wildfires between 2018 and 2022 topped 1.8 million acres, according to CalFire.
Texas Wildfires Scorch Nearly 250,000 Acres—Here’s Where Evacuations Are In Effect (Forbes)
Key Nuclear Weapons Plant Forced To Pause Operations Amid Texas Wildfires (Forbes)