Texas emergency crews are battling the worst wildfire in state history that expanded to more than 1 million acres in just four days, threatened refineries and a nuclear weapons plant amid forecasts for several more days of dry, windy weather.
The largest of multiple blazes scorching the Texas Panhandle – the Smokehouse Creek Fire – expanded more than 20-fold in just two days and now covers 1.075 million acres (1,700 square miles), according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. That surpasses the 907,245-acre East Amarillo Complex fire of 2006 that formerly held the record.
“The potential for wildfire activity will increase again for the Plains region Saturday and Sunday due to strong winds and dry fuels,” the A&M service warned in a statement.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire and the Windy Deuce Fire have scorched houses, shut highways and schools, and menaced critical infrastructure including an oil refinery and the Pantex nuclear-weapons facility. The Pantex plant, northeast of Amarillo, evacuated nonessential staff Tuesday night as the blaze rapidly grew.
Natural gas driller Pantera Energy Co. was forced to shut roughly 1% of its production and pipes at one field that suffered fire damage. “We’ll have to replace some surface equipment over the next couple weeks,” Pantera President Jason Herrick told Bloomberg in an interview. “Ours was not too bad.”
According to a map from the National Interagency Fire Center, the Smokehouse Creek fire and the Windy Deuce fire as of Feb. 28 were to the immediate east and west of Borger, Texas, where Nutrien Ltd. operates an ammonia and urea production facility.
“All of our colleagues at Nutrien Borger in Texas are currently safe from the wildfires that constitute the second largest fire in state history,” Nutrien said in a Feb. 29 statement to Green Markets. “We are in regular contact with our colleagues and are doing everything we can to support their safety, our number one priority. The plant remains in operation and undamaged at this time.”
Nutrien confirmed that “several of our colleagues have lost their homes and several others remain engaged in efforts to contain the fire. Our hearts go out to the impacted communities. Nutrien Borger is working to provide aid to the community and we encourage donations to the Red Cross to aid the many thousands of people that have been affected by these fires.”
Phillips 66’s Borger refinery was on alert but still operational late on Feb. 28. The refinery has a crude throughput capacity of 75,000 barrels per day, and a gasoline throughput capacity of 50,000 barrels per day. Earlier on Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a disaster for 60 counties affected by four separate wildfires.
Tens of thousands of cattle already may have perished and entire ranches have been wiped out, said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. At least one person died due to the blaze, an octogenarian who was trapped in her home, according to multiple media reports.
Utility owner Xcel Energy Inc.’s stock plummeted, erasing almost $1.9 billion of its market cap, after the company disclosed in a Feb. 29 regulatory filing that an unnamed law firm representing property owners affected by the wildfire has asked the company to preserve as evidence a fallen utility pole located near the potential area of origin. Xcel owns Southwestern Public Service Company, which operates in the region.
“We will cooperate with officials while conducting our own investigations to determine the causes of the fires,” an Xcel spokesperson told Bloomberg in an emailed statement.