Over a million acres and only 5% contained now.
For all the fires: "The wildfires have already scorched about 2,000 square miles – roughly the same amount of land as the entire state of Delaware."
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/us/texas-panhandle-smokehouse-creek-fire-thursday/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokehouse_Creek_Fire
The map of that fire is incredible. It grew so fast, it's scary. With the speed something like that can spread, it is really concerning how fast something like that can endanger people. While it has impacted some, I just don't know how at risk large cities in the region are susceptible to something like this. We need to be better at mobilization. I could understand why Maui would be at greater risk due to being an island in the Pacific. That's one state's resources you are using. It takes time to get them more. I would have thought things like air tankers might be able to get to Texas faster. But then again, the speed of this was just too fast, and maybe the weather conditions for fighting it not good enough, to mobilize anything fast enough even if we were much better prepared for things like this. This one just seems so extreme in how fast and how large it grew.
From an article linked from Wikipedia:
"The Smokehouse Creek fire, which started Monday afternoon in Hutchinson County, grew from 100,000 to 500,000 acres within 24 hours, according to Texas A&M Forest Service."
I guess air tankers probably wouldn't be much of a match for that. Maybe wind was a problem early on too. They seem to usually drop that stuff just above the fire and if there was wind you probably can't fly them even if you can get them fast enough. And you would need so many too. |