From The Associated Press
Authorities say a wildfire killed three ranch hands in the Texas Panhandle who were trying to usher cattle away from the flames.
Gray County Judge Richard Peet said Tuesday that the two men and the woman were killed by a wildfire that flared Monday afternoon.
Peet, the county’s top administrator, says one of the three apparently died of smoke inhalation late Monday while the other two suffered severe burns and died while being taken to hospitals. Peet says winds of more than 55 mph fanned the flames.
The Gray County fire was separate from one to the west near Amarillo and from another much larger one just to the north near the Oklahoma border that has burned 156 square miles of land.
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Authorities say as many as four firefighters have been hurt battling fires in the Texas Panhandle.
Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Phillip Truitt says the four were hurt Monday as one fire intensified near Amarillo and another larger one spread in the far northeast corner of the Panhandle near the Oklahoma border.
Truitt said Tuesday that one of the firefighters injured worked for Pantex, the nuclear facility northeast of Amarillo, and the other for a volunteer department in the region. He provided no details on the nature of their injuries.
It was not immediately clear how the other firefighters were hurt or the extent of their injuries.
Truitt says the larger fire covers some 156 square miles near the Oklahoma border.