Grandmother, 83, identified as first victim of Texas’ massive Smokehouse Creek Fire
An 83-year-old grandmother was identified Wednesday as the first victim of Texas’ Smokehouse Creek Fire, as the massive cluster of wildfires grows to become one of the largest in the Lone Star State’s history.
Joyce Blankenship, who was once a substitute teacher, was identified as the sole victim of the blaze by family members after deputies found her remains inside her scorched home, according to CNN.
Authorities confirmed a fatality from the Scotts Acres neighborhood in Stinnett without identifying the victim.
Her step-grandson, Lee Quesada told the outlet that Blankenship was beloved in her small Hutchinson County community and “will be missed by all.”
Her other grandson, Nathan Blankenship reportedly said he and his father tried in vain to call her Tuesday as fire swept through the hard-hit area, a day before receiving word of her death.
“The house was gone,” Nathan told the network. “There was no way she could’ve gotten out.”
Officials had not yet completed an exhaustive search for victims.
Since igniting on Monday, the Smokehouse Creek Fire quickly expanded to over 1,300 square miles and jumped into parts of Oklahoma.
“I believe the fire will grow before it gets fully contained,” said Nim Kidd, Texas Division of Emergency Management chief.
The massive blaze, which is now larger than the state of Rhode Island, is only about 3% contained, the Texas A&M Forest Service said.
As many as 23 separate fires were blazing Thursday morning, the agency added.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire trails just behind the state’s largest recorded fire, the 2006 East Amarillo Complex Fire, which burned about 1,400 square miles and killed 13 people.
While the weather forecast provided some hope for firefighters — cooler temperatures, less wind and possibly rain on Thursday, conditions to produce more fires are expected Saturday and Sunday as heat and high winds will likely cause “critical fire weather conditions again,” the National Weather Service in Amarillo said.
The massive blaze has left much of Texas charred “like a moonscape,” Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall said. According to Kendall, about 40 homes in the town of Canadian were completely burned to the ground and hundreds of cattle have been killed.
Meanwhile, the small town of Fritch, which lost hundreds of homes in a 2014 fire, was seemingly hit hard again. Mayor Tom Ray said Wednesday that between 40-50 homes have been destroyed already in the town of about 2,200.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said those in the affected areas need to be ready to move in necessary.
“The fires in the Texas Panhandle are raging ferociously. My team in the state is continuously monitoring the ongoing situation closely,” he wrote on X. “We need those who are impacted to listen to your local officials’ warnings and be prepared to move out of harm’s way.”
On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 Texas counties because of the rapidly spreading wildfires in the Lone Star State.
The declaration allows additional state resources to support local firefighters.
More than 7,000 Texas households were without power at around 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, but electricity had been restored to some 3,000 customers a half hour later, according to Power Outage US.
With Post wires.
