Several fires burned throughout the Texas Panhandle this weekend, on a Sunday that was windy even by West Texas standards. One fire near the northwest loop of Amarillo ultimately burned 400 acres of grassland before being conquered by firefighters from Potter County Fire, the Texas A&M Forest Service, and the Amarillo Street Department.
As The Amarillo Globe-News reports, the fire jumped Soncy Road and threatened Amarillo’s hospital district before being vanquished. Earlier on Sunday, firefighters also put out a blaze near Hastings and Broadway in Amarillo. That fire consumed about 30 acres before fire crews initiated a controlled burn of an additional four acres.
Meanwhile, another huge fire began in Hartley County and spread into Oldham and Moore County, threatening oil operations south of Dumas. That fire scorched almost 16,000 acres and created a massive plume of smoke that stretched across the Eastern Panhandle.