By BETSY BLANEY
The Associated Press
McLEAN, Texas — Stiff wind swept across the dry Texas landscape Wednesday, challenging firefighters already weary from three days of battling wildfires that have blackened 840,000 acres and killed 11 people.
No towns appeared to be in immediate danger, but fire crews and equipment had been stationed around the north sides of the fires in anticipation of the wind picking up, said Jan Fulkerson, a spokeswoman with the Texas Forest Service.
Overcast skies provided some relief early Wednesday. Fulkerson said firefighters hoped the higher humidity would keep flammable conditions from becoming explosive, as happened Sunday when the wildfires began.
“The humidities, they’re helping them out at this point,” said Mike Johnson of the National Weather Service. “But the wind is still a tremendous issue.”
There’s a 40 percent chance of rain this weekend, but firefighters probably won’t see a drop before Friday, he said.
The fire crews had been preparing for the worst.
“The winds and all the burning embers we got, it could be bad,” said McLean Volunteer Fire Chief Clifford McDonald.
In the 24-hour period that ended at midday Tuesday, the state had sent crews and aircraft to more than 200 fires covering 191,000 acres.
Those blazes destroyed 15 homes, closed at least one highway and forced the evacuation of 45 people, officials said. Since last weekend, 1,900 others in seven counties already had been forced to evacuate. About 10,000 cows and horses were feared dead across the smoking landscape, according to the Texas Animal Health Commission.
Gov. Rick Perry plans to tour the devastated areas Thursday.
Since Dec. 26, fires have consumed about 3.7 million acres and nearly 400 homes in his state, Texas officials said.
Wednesday morning, southerly wind had picked up to 28 mph at Amarillo, about 70 miles west of McLean in the Texas Panhandle, and gusts to 40 mph were possible, the National Weather Service said. The wind was expected to continue through the day before easing slightly during the night.
More than 350 firefighters have been battling the latest outbreak of flames, about two dozen aircraft have been used to drop fire retardant, and 55 bulldozer crews have been clearing brush and digging trenches.
The charred bodies of four oilfield workers were found within 50 yards of their car, said Newell Rankin, the range foreman of the Roberts County ranch where the bodies were found. Rankin said it appeared the men drove off a gravel road Sunday and into a ravine, where they abandoned the car.
“In a last act of desperation you just run for your life, literally,” he said. “It’s a shocking thing, the loss of life.”
Rankin said most of his 1,300-acre ranch was burned, and he was trying to account for his 750 head of cattle. He found 12 dead and had to shoot another. About 500 were back in their pens, and firefighters managed to save his home, Rankin said.
On Sunday, four people died in a crash on a smoke-shrouded highway near Groom, and three more died trapped in homes near Borger.
Nine firefighters have been injured, with two of them in intensive care after a vehicle rollover, said Daniel Hawthorne, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.
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Associated Press writers Terry Wallace and Anabelle Garay in Dallas contributed to this report.