Texas man's home standing after neighborhood torched by wildfire: 'It's all on fire back there, all around us'
A series of fires burns across the Texas Panhandle devouring landscape and homes. Together, they burned nearly a million acres.
Texas resident surveys scorched town after wildfire tears through
A local in Fritch, Texas, captured video of extensive damage seen in the town after wildfires ripped through parts of the state’s panhandle on Tuesday.
FRITCH, Texas – A man looked unbelieving at his neighbor's smoking homes while his was the only one left standing in one Texas neighborhood.
"Well, our house is still standing," lucky homeowner Lee Quesada said on his video tour. "But then, if you look over on the other side of that tree, which is on fire, two structures, neighbors, two houses down across the street on fire."
The Windy Deuce Fire devoured half of Fritch and so many of Quesada's neighbors' homes, barns and sheds on Tuesday. Officials evacuated part of the town, so this is his first look at the destruction. He could still make out lingering flames even though smoke choked the view.
OVER 1 MILLION ACRES BURN DURING FIRES IN TEXAS, OKLAHOMA
A resident drives through what is left of his neighborhood after a wildfire scorched a portion.
(Lee Quesada via Storyful / FOX Weather)
"See the flames going? It's all on fire back there, all around us," Quesada continued. "God bless us. And we didn't get touched."
The Windy Deuce Fire has blackened 90,000 acres so far and is only 25% contained. It is one of the several wildfires that make up the Texas Panhandle Wildfires that, in total, have scorched almost a million acres in just three days.
(FOX Weather)
Extreme winds, record heat and low humidity enabled this fire, the cause currently under investigation, to speed across the Texas landscape. Winds gusted to 64 mph on Tuesday.
WATCH: FORT WORTH FIREFIGHTERS DRIVE THROUGH FLAMES TO JOIN BATTLE AGAINST TEXAS WILDFIRE
Before and after satellite photos of Fritch followed by a closeup of a neighborhood before and after images.
(Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies / FOX Weather)
Firefighters took advantage of the lower winds and higher humidity on Wednesday and built containment lines around the perimeter, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. A main goal is to stop the fire from spreading to Amarillo to the south.
The largest of the Texas Panhandle Wildfires is the Smokehouse Creek Fire. It is already the second-largest wildfire in the state's history at 850,000 acres, and only 3% was contained. The blaze only has to burn 60,000 more acres to eclipse the current record-holder from 2006, which was in the same county.
"High winds, high temperatures, and low humidities all day (Tuesday) have caused extreme fire behavior to occur and a rapid rate of spread. Winds were predominantly out of the east until a frontal passage came through, causing winds to shift to out of the north," reported the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.
Winds will pick up again over the weekend, according to the FOX Forecast Center.