At over 1 million acres, deadly Texas Panhandle wildfire grows to largest in state history

The Smokehouse Creek Fire which ignited Monday in the Texas Panhandle has burned over 1 million acres and is now considered the largest wildfire in the state’s history, officials said.

The already massive blaze merged with another Hutchinson County wildfire, known as the 687 Reamer Fire, and is only 3% contained, the Texas A&M Forest Service posted on X shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday.

The fire has burned over 1 million acres in six counties in the Texas Panhandle, including Hutchinson, Roberts, Hemphill, Wheeler, Gray and Carson, according to a Forest Service map. Another 25,000 acres are burning across the state line in Oklahoma.

The fire is close to twice the size of Tarrant County, which is 902 square miles including land and water, or around 577,280 acres, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The historic Turkey Track Ranch in Hutchinson County lost around 80% of its pastures, plains and creek bottom vegetation to the Smokehouse Creek Fire, ranch managers said in a statement Wednesday. They are still assessing loss of livestock and infrastructure.

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The managers expressed their gratitude to the firefighters who helped save the ranch homestead along with other outlying homes and buildings.

“The Turkey Track Ranch will recover and regenerate growth, habitat, ecosystems and wildlife,” the statement said. “Nature mends after fire and will grow again all the natural grasses, vegetation and tree cover in our beloved ranch oasis.”

The Turkey Track Ranch was up for sale for $180 million before the fire, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV reported.

Katie Rice, whose parents own a ranch in the Panhandle, told WFAA that the fire raced across her family’s land in a matter of minutes.

“The way my dad described it, he probably could not have driven a vehicle across the pasture as fast as the fire was moving,” Rice told WFAA.

On Wednesday, Rice was looking for cattle that survived the blaze and pairing them up with their calves. Her family members are all safe, WFAA reported, and her parents’ home was undamaged.

Texas A&M Forest Service spokesperson Adam Turner told WFAA that the fire spread rapidly due to high winds combined with low humidity. Officials don’t yet know the number of structures destroyed.

Joyce Blankenship, an 83-year-old grandmother who died, has been identified as the first casualty of the Smokehouse Creek Fire, according to CNN.

“The house was gone,” her grandson Nathan Blankenship told CNN. “There was no way she could’ve gotten out.”

Fifteen firefighters from the Fort Worth Fire Department have deployed to the Panhandle to help contain the Smokehouse Creek Fire. The crews took two FWFD brush trucks and one FWFD pickup truck with them.

Several other North Texas fire departments, including Dallas, Farmer’s Branch and McKinney, have also sent crews to help battle the Smokehouse Creek Fire.

Three members of the Flower Mound Fire Department also responded to the Panhandle, the department said on social media. On Tuesday they were assigned to make sure residents in the Canadian area had evacuated.

The Flower Mound firefighters found an elderly resident who was unable to leave on her own, according to the post. By the time the firefighters found her, the front and back of her home were already on fire. The home was ultimately destroyed, but the firefighters managed to get the woman to safety.

According to the Forest Service, the 30 largest wildfires in Texas history have occurred since 1988. The largest prior to this week’s fire was the 2006 East Amarillo Complex Fire, which consumed over 907,000 acres.