Politics

Second person dies as Texas wildfires become biggest blaze in state’s history

A second dying has been confirmed in the raging wildfires in Texas which have become the biggest blaze in the state’s history.

Cindy Owens, believed to be in her 40s, from Amarillo City in Potter County was confirmed lifeless by officers on Thursday.

Follow our liveblog for the latest on Texas wildfires.

She was driving in Texas‘s Hemphill County south of Canada and got out of the truck for an unknown reason and “the fire simply overtook her”, according to Sergeant Chris Ray of the Texas Department of Public Safety told NBC.

Owens sustained severe burn injuries. A passerby stopped and helped her and called 911. She was taken to a burn unit in Oklahoma City but died on Thursday morning.

“We still don’t know why she acquired out of her truck,” Sergeant Ray instructed NBC.

Before Owens, 83-year-old Joyce Blankenship was found dead in her destroyed Hutchinson County home, officers mentioned.

She was a beloved mom, grandmother and former substitute trainer, say her relatives.

Blankenship’s grandson, Lee Quesada, instructed the Associated Press that native deputies instructed his uncle that they had discovered her stays in her burned dwelling on Wednesday.

More than a dozen different houses in her city had been destroyed by the fires.

Fire officers from Lubbock, Texas, assist put out smouldering particles of a house destroyed by the Smokehouse Creek Fire

(AP)

The wildfires spreading throughout the Texas Panhandle have burned greater than 1.2m acres of land, prompting evacuations and destroying dozens of houses

The Smokehouse Creek hearth is now the biggest in state history, burning 1,075,000 acres, in keeping with the Texas A&M Forest Service.

It is now the second-largest hearth in US history, local fire officials mentioned, and greater than 5 occasions the scale of New York City.

Dry and windy circumstances amid unseasonably heat temperatures fuelled these fires.

President Joe Biden, who was in Texas on Thursday to go to the US-Mexico border, mentioned he directed federal officers to do “everything possible” to help fire-affected communities, together with sending firefighters and gear.

“When disasters strike, there’s no red states or blue states where I come from,” Mr Biden mentioned. “Just communities and families looking for help.”

“So we’re standing with everybody affected by these wildfires and we’re going to proceed that will help you reply and recuperate.

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