TEXAS, USA — UPDATE (10 a.m. Feb. 29): Fires across Texas have grown to more than 1 million acres, as of Thursday morning, according to the latest update from the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire is now an estimated 1.07 million acres. The forest service said Thursday the fire environment will be cooler across the Panhandle where multiple large fires are established. Fire activity will not be as resistant to suppression efforts Thursday compared to Monday and Tuesday.
Active wildfires, as of Thursday morning:
- Smokehouse Creek Fire, Hutchinson County - est. 1,075,000 acres, 3% contained; *the 687 Reamer Fire has burned into the Smokehouse Creek Fire and is now included in the total acres.
- Windy Deuce Fire, Moore County - est. 142,000 acres, 30% contained
- Magenta Fire, Oldham County - est. 2,500 acres, 65% contained
- Grape Vine Creek Fire, Gray County - est. 30,000 acres, 60% contained
Contained wildfires (100%):
- W Creek Fire, Moore County - 650 acres
- Cass 0347 Fire, Cass County - 6 acres
- Upshur 0341 Fire, Upshur County - 1.5 acres
- Nacogdoches 0343 Fire, Nacogdoches County - 1 acre
- Newton 0345 Fire, Newton County - 1.5 acres
- Orange 0346 Fire, Orange County - 80 acres
For information about active and recently contained wildfires, visit the Texas A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer: public.tfswildfires.com/.
Frequent incident updates can be found on the Incident Information Twitter page, twitter.com/AllHazardsTFS.
For information about the current wildfire situation, visit tfsweb.tamu.edu/CurrentSituation.
UPDATE (3 p.m. Feb. 28): The Smokehouse Creek Fire has now grown to 850,000 acres and is at 3% containment, according to the Texas Forest Service.
ORIGINAL STORY: A massive wildfire in Hutchison County in the Texas Panhandle has spread to cover an estimated 500,000 acres, as of Wednesday morning, according to Incident Information - Texas A&M Forest Service.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire is under 0% containment Wednesday morning. The forest service reports fire behavior has moderated with decreased winds, but it is still actively burning.
The fire is now the second-largest fire in Texas history with the East Amarillo Complex Fire in March 2006, the largest at 907,245 acres. That fire was also in the Panhandle area.
A team from the San Angelo Fire Department arrived in Canadian Tuesday with a Type 6 fire truck to help fight the fire that continues to spread.
SAFD Assistant Fire Chief Johnny Fisher said four SAFD personnel, including a strike team leader, deployed from San Angelo to the Panhandle.
Fisher said the team is among the at least 150 additional strike team personnel who have responded to the Panhandle.
"Our strike team leader is very well-experienced at fighting wildfires," Fisher said. "He said he's never seen anything like this before in his life."
Calls have been made for Type 1 fire trucks, Fisher said, which are for fighting structural fires.
This is a developing story. Updates will be made as more information is received.