By BETSY BLANEY
The Associated Press
AMARILLO, Texas — The parched Texas Panhandle apparently survived another wildfire scare, but forecasters predicted dangerous conditions in other parts of the state Friday.
Wildfires fueled by steady 40 mph winds scorched 27,000 acres Thursday and destroyed at least nine homes while forcing the evacuation of two small towns about 65 miles east of Amarillo.
The roughly 600 residents of Lefors and Bowers City were allowed to return home in the evening and lighter winds helped firefighters contain most of the more than two dozen blazes, officials said.
No injuries were reported.
“You can call that a bullet dodged,” said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Wayne Beighle.
Higher humidity and slightly calmer winds were forecast for the Panhandle as a cold front moves in Friday. But the fire danger was expected to shift as windy, dry conditions move into a large circular area from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to western Texas and back toward San Antonio, the Texas Forest Service said.
“With the fire weather we’re expecting again, people just need to avoid any activity that could ignite a wildfire,” said Paul Hannemann of the Forest Service.
Fires also burned Thursday in the western Texas counties of Crane, Upton, Glasscock and Howard, near the Big Spring and Midland-Odessa areas. But Panhandle residents still skittish from March fires that burned nearly a million acres and killed 11 people faced the biggest threats again.
The largest blaze — on about 14,000 acres north of Amarillo — threatened but ultimately did not damage a natural gas plant, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver said.
Officials temporarily closed several roads because high winds were blowing dust and smoke. A wind gust of 70 mph toppled an 18-wheeler on a rural highway, Beighle said.
Winds also blew ash left by last month’s fires, said Matthew Kramar, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
One fire that started in the Texas Panhandle burned across the state line and reached a sparsely populated area in western Oklahoma, officials said.
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Associated Press Writer Anabelle Garay in Dallas contributed to this report.