Texas Wildfire Burning Through 150 Football Fields a Minute

A series of intense wildfires that have sprung up along the Texas Panhandle are scorching hundreds of thousands of acres and growing rapidly.

Five active wildfires have not yet been contained by firefighters, the largest of which is the Smokehouse Creek Fire in Hutchinson County, which is now considered to be the second-largest fire Texas has ever seen, at 500,000 acres in size.

This fire was burning across 40,000 acres as of Tuesday morning and has since grown at a rate of about 150 football fields every minute, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

These fires have led to evacuations in several towns north of Amarillo and caused a nuclear weapons facility to shut down temporarily.

The Texas A&M Forest Service's account on X (formerly Twitter) said Wednesday morning: "Update: the #SmokehouseCreekFire in Hutchinson County remains an estimated 500,000 acres and 0% contained. Fire behavior has moderated with decreased winds, but it is still actively burning."

The largest wildfire in Texas history was the East Amarillo Complex fire in 2006, which scorched more than 900,000 acres, according to the forest service.

Other wildfires that are burning across the Panhandle are the Grape Vine Creek fire in Hutchinson County, which has burned about 30,000 acres and is 15 percent contained; Windy Deuce Fire in Moore County, which has burned about 40,000 acres and is 20 percent contained; the 2,000-acre Magenta Fire in Oldham County, which is 10 percent contained; and the 687 Reamer Fire in Hutchinson County, which is 0 percent contained and has burned 2,000 acres.

The Juliet Pass Fire, which was burning earlier Tuesday in Armstrong County, has been 100 percent contained after burning nearly 3,000 acres.

Another wildfire is burning much farther away—northeast of Dallas. Named the Mills Creek Fire, it has burned 75 acres and is 0 percent contained

A map from the Texas A&M Forest Service's Incident Viewer shows the locations of each of the fires and the latest updates on their area and containment.

These fires have caused chaos across the region, prompting evacuations and cutting off power to thousands. The Pantex nuclear weapons manufacturing facility—located 17 miles northeast of Amarillo—evacuated its employees from the site on Tuesday night but planned to reopen on Wednesday.

"We have evacuated our personnel, non-essential personnel from the site, just in an abundance of caution," Laef Pendergraft, a spokesperson for National Nuclear Security Administration's Production Office at Pantex, said during a news conference, according to Phoenix's KSAZ-TV.

"But we do have a well-equipped fire department that has trained for these scenarios, that is on-site and watching and ready should any kind of real emergency arise on the plant site," Pendergraft said.

On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 Texas counties in response to the wildfires.

"I issued a disaster declaration today to ensure critical fire response resources are swiftly deployed to areas in the Texas Panhandle being impacted by devastating wildfires," he said.

He continued: "The state of Texas stands ready to provide support to our local partners and deploy all resources needed to protect our fellow Texans and their property. Hot and dry conditions caused by high temperatures and windy conditions are expected to continue in the region in the coming days. These conditions could increase the potential for these wildfires to grow larger and more dangerous."

The fires are thought to have been sparked by higher than average temperatures in the Panhandle, combined with dry conditions and increased wind speeds.

"The Texas A&M Forest Service reports that several large wildfires ignited yesterday under warm, dry, and windy conditions across the Texas Panhandle. Strong forecasted winds will likely impact these wildfires, causing them to grow larger," Abbott said.

"There is a possibility for wildfire activity to occur where an abundant amount of dormant grasses are present on the landscape in areas near and around them, including the Panhandle, South Plains, Texoma, and Permian Basin regions. Portions of East Texas also face increased wildfire risk amid active burns," the governor said.

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