A vast and growing wildfire, one of several burning in the Texas Panhandle, has now become the largest on record in state history, scorching more than a million acres, devastating cattle ranches, consuming homes and continuing to rage out of control.
The sparsely populated area is home to most of the state’s cattle — millions of cows and calves, steers and bulls — spread across ranches whose very size and lack of roadways can make them difficult for people to traverse and easy for fires to take hold.
Wildfires are nothing new for Panhandle ranchers, many of whom know how to transform their pickups into makeshift fire trucks in order to battle the blazes that periodically flare.
But never before had anyone seen a fire quite like the one given the name Smokehouse Creek. It ignited on Monday, and as of Thursday it was still burning uncontrolled. Two deaths have been connected to the fires so far.
Ranchers have been forced to watch as the grasslands that their cattle rely on for food have been transformed into a blackened expanse. Thousands of cattle may have already died or been so injured in the blazes that they would have to be killed, said the state agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller.
Even those whose cattle survived have been left scrambling for a place for their herds to eat. Mr. Miller said a rancher he knew had 1,500 head of steer but “no grass and no water” and was in a desperate situation.
