Unchecked Wildfires Devastate Texas Cattle Country

The Guardian reports:

Ferocious winds continue to thwart firefighters across a broad swathe of Texas on Sunday where the second largest wildfire in US history is only 15% contained after six days.

As of Sunday morning the Smokehouse Creek Fire has so far scorched almost 1.1m acres – 1,700 sq miles – across the Texas Panhandle in the north of the state, as well as tens of thousands of acres in Oklahoma.

It stretches over an area larger than Rhode Island, making it the largest and most destructive wildfire in Texas history.

The Texas Tribune reports:

The largest wildfire in Texas history has devastated the state’s agriculture, blazing through more than 1 million acres of land in the Panhandle, killing thousands of livestock, destroying crops and gutting infrastructure

Over 85% of the state’s cattle population is located on ranches in the Panhandle, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.

The fires have left little food or water for livestock. Some farmers lost everything. Property fences are gone. Hundreds of miles of power lines have burned, leaving no electricity to pump water from wells — which farmers rely on to hydrate their cattle.

The largest wildfire in Texas history has devastated the state’s agriculture, blazing through more than 1 million acres of land in the Panhandle, killing thousands of livestock, destroying crops and gutting infrastructure. https://t.co/lnU76QpKS2

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) March 1, 2024