Wildfires Sweep Texas Panhandle, Evacuations Ordered

February 28, 2024 Natural Disasters, News

USA Today reports:

The second-largest wildfire in Texas history continued to rip across the Texas Panhandle along with other major blazes on Wednesday, prompting evacuations, school closures and a temporary shut down of the nation’s primary nuclear weapons facility.

The blazes began on Monday but spread quickly the following day as strong winds, dry conditions and unseasonably high temperatures, which broke records across the country, fueled rapid growth.

By Wednesday morning, the largest fire, Smokehouse Creek, stretched across 500,000 acres – about 800 square miles, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

ABC News reports:



The “wildfires in northern Texas and western Oklahoma prompted a precautionary evacuation of nonessential personnel at the Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant in Amarillo. All special materials are safe and unaffected. There are no reported impacts to early voting in either state,” according to an internal situation report from DHS/CISA.

“The Pantex Nuclear Weapons Plant in Carson County evacuated all nonessential personnel and paused operations until further notice due to the ongoing wildfires,” according to the report obtained by ABC News. “All weapons and special materials are safe and unaffected. The facility is approximately 13 miles from the Windy Deuce Fire.”

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