BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press

AMARILLO, Texas - Wildfires have burned more than 110,000 acres and destroyed nearly 70 homes after a dry, windy day in West Texas.


A child was killed, dozens of homes were destroyed and hundreds of people were evacuated as wildfires swept across tens of thousands of acres in West Texas on Sunday, and gusty winds fueling the fires weren't expected to diminish overnight.

The fires were threatening areas from the Texas Panhandle through the southern plains. One firefighter suffered second-degree burns fighting a blaze near Colorado City, where a hospital and nursing home were evacuated as a 1,000-acre wildfire approached, according to the Texas Forest Service.

Heavy smoke from a wildfire near Midland was blamed for an eight-car accident along Interstate 20 that killed a 5-year-old girl. The roadway was shrouded in smoke when a tractor-trailer hit the pickup truck she was riding in, said Trooper John Barton of the Texas Department of Public Safety. A man and another child were injured.

No other injuries were immediately reported from the fires.

The fires blackened almost 88,000 acres and destroyed 58 homes from the Panhandle to the Permian Basin and rolling plains, Texas Forest Service spokesman Lewis Kearney said.

The largest burned 30,000 acres northeast of Amarillo, destroying 27 homes and damaging seven others, he said. Among the buildings destroyed was the Willow Creek Kennels, though it was unclear how many animals died in the blaze, said Donna Makkhavane, spokeswoman for the Amarillo-Potter-Randall Office of Emergency Management.

Daniel Cook, a volunteer firefighter in Palisades, lost his home in the fires and said he heard the news over the radio.

"I'm glad everyone got out safe," the 34-year-old Cook said, noting that his uncle and his two dogs safely fled the house. "There is nothing you can do. You can't stop what you're doing to go protect your home."

Cook was staying at a shelter south of Amarillo at Cowboy Church that was set up after residents were evacuated. Cook said someone had recently told him that his "whole street was ash."

Gusty winds that were fueling the fires weren't expected to weaken overnight, said Mark Stanford, chief of fire operations for the Texas Forest Service. He said the conditions were "very severe."

Aircraft that help gather information about the scattered fires couldn't get into the air because of the winds. But humidity rose to about 25 percent in the Amarillo area by nightfall, which could offer some relief to firefighters, Stanford said.

Another wildfire scorched about 21,000 acres in a remote area north of Midland, just east of the Texas-New Mexico line. No homes were reported damaged, but smoke from the blaze was blamed for the fatal accident along Interstate 20. Cameron Dominguez, 5, died in the accident, while Juan Dominguez, 30, and 9-year-ol Elijah Arp were taken to Midland Memorial Hospital. Hospital spokesman Mike Ross said Dominguez was in stable condition and Elijah had been treated and released.

The blaze that injured the firefighter near Colorado City, about 240 miles west of Dallas, destroyed three large oil storage tanks, two homes and an outbuilding.

Evacuations were ordered in Matador, about 130 miles southeast of Amarillo, as a wildfire burning across 500 acres bore down on the tiny town. Motley County Judge Jim Meador said at least two homes were burned in the town of about 650 residents, and the fire was still threatening the south side of Matador as darkness approached Sunday.

The evacuation order was expected to extend into at least Monday morning, he said.

"It's still going good. It's moved through the southern edge of town and hasn't been contained. You can't see that area very good because of the smoke, but I've got reports of two homes burned," he said.

A wildfire prompted the evacuation of the southeastern part of Borger, about 40 miles northeast of Amarillo. But Borger Emergency Management Coordinator Danny Richards said the imminent threat had eased as of nightfall Sunday.

Another fire just south of Amarillo had burned about 2,000 acres by nightfall Sunday, according to the Texas Forest Service. Makkhavane said 17 to 19 homes in that area were destroyed or damaged.

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Associated Press writer Terry Wallace contributed to this report from Dallas.

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