Feb. 20 (UPI) — Wildfires have burned more than 300,000 acres in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, and more than a million people in the region were under a fire watch Friday.
No deaths were reported, but several structures have been damaged or destroyed in Oklahoma’s Panhandle, where a 283,000-acre Ranger Road Fire was 20% contained as of Friday morning, KFOR reported. That fire spread into parts of southwestern Kansas.
The Stevens Fire, 12,428 acres, and the Side Road Fire, 3,680 acres, in Oklahoma’s Texas County were 60% and 75% contained, respectively as of Friday morning.
The Poor Farm Fire in Latimer County was 10% contained after burning some 9,000 acres.
Among other significant fires, the 43 Fire in Woodward County has burned 1,680 acres and was 60% contained, while the 1,400-acre Rattlesnake Fire in Osage and Washington counties was only 30% contained.
Other active fires are the 182-acre Hospital Road Fire in Carter County, which was 40% contained; the 242-acre 615 Fire in Cherokee County, which was 70% contained; and the 126-acre Chelsea Fire in Rogers County, which was 60% contained.
Warm, dry and windy conditions in the area triggered the fires, and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday declared states of emergency for Woodward, Beaver and Texas counties.
Many residents have evacuated those counties, and a significant fire danger remains in Texas and Cimarron counties in the Panhandle region.
Local forecasters said cooling temperatures and lessening wind speeds are expected to reduce the threat of the fires spreading, but wind speeds of between 25 mph and 35 mph, with gusts of up to 60 mph, continued on Friday morning.