2,300 Square Miles Burn Across KS, TX, OK, CO; Six Dead So Far, Fire Danger Growing W. Drought

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Firefighters near Protection, Kan., this week. Dry conditions have helped fuel the flames. Credit Bo Rader/The Wichita Eagle, via Associated Press

Wildfires raging across four states, fanned by winds and fueled by a drought-starved prairie, have killed at least six people and burned more than 2,300 square miles.

Winds in western Kansas and the Oklahoma Panhandle were easing somewhat on Wednesday, but weather officials said that conditions were challenging for fire crews and were expected to worsen on Thursday and Friday, renewing concerns about getting the fires under control.

“These conditions will make it somewhat easier for firefighting efforts, but far from perfect,” Bill Bunting, forecast operations chief for the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center, told The Associated Press. “The fires still will be moving.” “The ideal situation is that it would turn cold and rain,” he said, “and unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.”

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Travis Pohlman checks for hot spots in the Highlands area north of Hutchinson, Kan. Credit Lindsey Bauman/The Hutchinson News, via Associated Press

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Oklahoma’s governor, Mary Fallin, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in 22 counties because of the wildfires, and Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas has signed a state of disaster emergency declaration. In northeastern Colorado, near the Nebraska border, firefighters battled a blaze that had burned more than 45 square miles and destroyed at least five homes and 15 outbuildings, with no serious injuries.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/us/wildfires-midwest-prairie-texas.html