Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ferocious wildfires
Flames surround a grain elevator in Sitka, Kan., early Tuesday as a wildfire fanned by strong winds caused 10,000 to 12,000 people to leave their homes in the area Monday night. Fires have scorched hundreds of square miles in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Emergency crews struggled Tuesday to contain wildfires that have scorched hundreds of square miles in four states, killing six people and forcing thousands of others to flee their homes ahead of the windwhipped flames.
Fires burned in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado, and warnings that conditions were ripe for wildfires were issued for Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska, even after powerful thunderstorms moved through the middle of the country overnight Monday, spawning dozens of suspected tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service.
Kansas wildfires have burned about 625 square miles and killed one person.
That fire started across the border in Oklahoma, where it burned an estimated 390 square miles in Beaver County. Officials say a separate fire has scorched more than 155 square miles in neighboring Harper County, Okla., and killed a woman who had a heart attack while trying to keep her farm near Buffalo from burning.
The largest evacuations elsewhere were in Reno County, Kan., where 10,000 to 12,000 people voluntarily left their homes Monday night, said Katie Horner, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Emergency Management.
In the Texas panhandle, three fires have burned about 500 square miles and killed at least four people.