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Arizona sends crews, equipment to help battle biggest wildfires in Texas history

The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management is sending crews and equipment to Texas to assist in the battle against the largest wildfires in state history. At least two people have died.

Tiffany Davila is with the agency and says the team is well experienced with that kind of terrain.

“A lot of that Texas panhandle is grass, vegetation, rolling hills, the typical kind of fuel type we see here in southern Arizona. A lot of grass components, brush, [and] very windy conditions," Davila said.

Davila says, if needed, the equipment and 10 crew members will be deployed in Texas for two weeks.

Up to 500 structures destroyed

Wildfires may have destroyed as many as 500 structures in the Texas Panhandle, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday, describing how the largest blaze in state history scorched everything in its path, leaving ashes in its wake.

Texas officials warned that the threat was not yet over. Higher temperatures and stronger winds forecast for Saturday elevated worries that fires in the Panhandle could spread beyond the more than 1,700 square miles already chewed up this week by fast-moving flames.

The largest blaze, the Smokehouse Creek fire, which began Monday, has killed at least two people, and left a charred landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle and burned-out homes. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, although strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm weather fed the flames.

“When you look at the damages that have occurred here it’s just gone, completely gone nothing left but ashes on the ground,” Abbott said during a news conference in Borger, Texas. He said a preliminary assessment found 400 to 500 structures had been destroyed.

Abbott praised what he called a “heroic” response from “fearless” firefighters.

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Jill Ryan joined KJZZ in 2020 as a morning reporter, and she is currently a field correspondent and Morning Edition producer.