Firefighters battle to control Texas wildfire

TINNETT, Texas — Firefighters in Texas faced rising temperatures, whipped-up winds and dry air Saturday in their battle to keep the largest wildfire in state history from turning more of the Panhandle into a parched wasteland.

Firefighters were focused on containing the fire along its northern and eastern perimeter, where aggressive gusts from the southwest threatened to spread the flames and consume more acreage, said Jason Nedlo, a spokesperson for firefighters battling the Smokehouse Creek Fire that began Monday and has claimed at least two lives.

“The main goal is to continue using dozers and fire engines to contain and patrol the fire,” Nedlo said. “We’re also focused on not losing any more structures, no more loss of life.”

The massive fire has left a charred landscape of scorched prairie and dead cattle, and destroyed as many as 500 structures, including burnedout homes. It has merged with another fire and crossed the state line into Oklahoma, burning more than 4,400 square kilometres and was 15% contained, the Texas A&M Forest Service said Saturday.

Winds gusts of up to 72 km/h were expected Saturday with humidity below 10% and a high temperature of 24 C.

“New fires could also potentially start … the relative humidities are very low, the wind gusts are high and so it doesn’t take much, all there needs to be is a spark” to ignite another fire, said meteorologist William Churchill with the National Weather Prediction Center.

Nedlo said because of the ongoing weather conditions, it is not possible yet to predict when the flames will be fully contained and brought under control.