Winds threaten to fuel huge Texas wildfire
HOUSTON (AFP) – Gusty weekend winds were threatening to worsen a millionacre wildfire that has already killed two people in the southern US.
Fires are burning across northern Texas and neighboring Oklahoma, fueled by an unseasonably warm winter and ferocious winds.
After a slight dousing of rain that brought limited reprieve to firefighters on Thursday as they sought to get a handle on the out-ofcontrol blazes, danger was forecast yesterday.
“Critical fire weather conditions are expected to return midday Saturday and once again after sunrise Sunday,” tweeted the National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas.
Wind gusts up to 65 kilometers an hour could push the blaze into very dry grassland, spreading the boundaries of the fire even further.
The Smokehouse Creek fire started on Monday and after merging with another blaze, has now become the largestever wildfire in Texas at over one-million acres (over 4,000 square kilometers).
That makes it around the size of Rhode Island, or about three times the size of London.
Texas A&M Forest Service fire chief Wes Moorehead urged Texans to be careful over the weekend, when many celebrate Texas Independence Day on March 2.
“As firefighters continue to suppress active fires, we urge Texans to be cautious with any outdoor activity that may cause a spark,” he said in a statement.
A 44-year-old truck driver died in an Oklahoma City hospital on Thursday, having been rescued near her smokeengulfed truck in Smokehouse Creek on Tuesday, according to several local media.
While evacuations were ordered in some places, the body of an 83-year-old woman was found in the city of Stinnett, a Hutchinson County emergency services spokesperson told