Latest Wildfire Headlines
All the headlines from our Wildfire Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas Wildfires Tracked by New Satellite
Mar 16 2017 // When wildfires scorched more than 1 million acres in early March across parts of the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and Kansas, forecasters used a new weather satellite to see the infernos developing, almost in real time. The...
20 Kansas Counties Declared Disaster Areas after Wildfires
Mar 16 2017 // Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a final disaster declaration covering 20 counties following last week’s wildfires that burned more than 1,000 square miles of the state. Brownback signed the declaration on March...
Dolly Parton Fund Aids 921 Tennessee Wildfire Victims
Mar 16 2017 // Dolly Parton’s My People Fund has issued monthly checks to 921 people who lost their homes in deadly wildfires that ravaged East Tennessee last year. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Dollywood Foundation...
Forestry Services: Wildfires in Oklahoma, Kansas 42% Contained
Mar 15 2017 // Oklahoma Forestry Services says four wildfires in northwestern Oklahoma and southwestern Kansas are now 42 percent contained, but a high fire danger continues in the region. The agency said that the largest fire is the...
6 Texas Counties Declared Disaster Areas Following Wildfires
Mar 13 2017 // Six counties in the Texas Panhandle have been declared disaster areas by Gov. Greg Abbott following the deadly wildfires that swept through the area on March 6 – 7 burning more than 440,000 acres. Abbott’s March 11...
Ranchers in Midwest Assessing Damage After Wildfires
Mar 10 2017 // Kansas rancher Greg Gardiner got into some of his scorched pastures for the first time on March 8 and surveyed what he likened to a battle zone: carcasses of dead cattle everywhere. “It’s pretty much a...
Deadly Wildfires Force Thousands from Homes in 4 States
Mar 8 2017 // Emergency crews on March 7 struggled to contain deadly wildfires that have scorched hundreds of square miles of land in four states and forced thousands of people to flee their homes ahead of the wind-whipped flames. The...
Humans to Blame for More Than 80% of U.S. Wildfires
Mar 7 2017 // Humans have been the culprits behind hundreds of thousands of wildfires in recent decades, and they will probably make things a whole lot worse in coming years. Research from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that...
Fighting Massive 2016 Wildfire Cost Kansas County $1.5M
Mar 6 2017 // Firefighting costs hit $1.5 million in the county hardest hit by a massive wildfire along the Kansas-Oklahoma border last year. Jerry McNamar, emergency management director for Kansas’ Barber County, said he’s...
Firefighters Gaining on Control of 2 Large Texas Wildfires
Mar 2 2017 // Firefighters have more fully contained two large wildfires in West Texas, including one that destroyed four homes and prompted the evacuation of nearly 1,200 others. Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Phillip Truitt...
Officials: Drone Interrupted Texas Wildfire Control Efforts
Feb 26 2017 // State fire officials say a drone being operated near a wildfire southwest of Fort Worth hampered firefighting efforts by forcing aircraft carrying retardant to be grounded. The Texas A&M Forest Service says two air...
Woman Arrested in Connection with 28 California Fires
Feb 23 2017 // A 24-year-old woman has been arrested in connection to 28 fires set throughout the city of Fullerton, Calif., since September. The Orange County Register reports that the woman was arrested after investigators found her...
Fighting Massive 2016 Wildfire Cost Kansas County $1.5M
Feb 13 2017 // Firefighting costs hit $1.5 million in the county hardest hit by a massive wildfire along the Kansas-Oklahoma border last year. Jerry McNamar, emergency management director for Kansas’ Barber County, said he’s...
Central Texas Now Has Air Tanker Base to Help Fight Wildfires
Feb 10 2017 // State Rep. John Cyrier (Lockhart) announced the establishment of a portable air tanker base at Austin Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) capable of equipping large, Type 1 air tankers to drop fire retardant during...
Tennessee Wildfire Insurance Claims Hit $842M
Feb 6 2017 // Tennessee state officials said last month that insurance claims have topped $842 million in the deadly eastern Tennessee wildfires that burned thousands of buildings. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the number,...
Drought-Hit Oklahoma Under Rare National Fire Advisory
Feb 3 2017 // Oklahoma has been placed under a national fire advisory as much of the state struggles with unrelenting drought and tinder-dry vegetation capable of igniting and quickly spreading out of control, state forestry officials...
Flooding and Damaging Wind Were Most Destructive Natural Hazards in 2016
Feb 2 2017 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Annual Summary from CoreLogic Details 2016 Natural Hazard Events CoreLogic® analyzes and evaluates the number and severity of natural hazard events that occurred...
Wildfires in Central Oklahoma Destroy Homes, Damage Structures
Jan 26 2017 // Authorities say at least two homes were destroyed in a fast-moving wildfire that burned in central Oklahoma on Tuesday. Wildfires, fueled by dry vegetation and strong winds, also damaged or destroyed other structures in...
Arkansas Had More than 1,200 Wildfires Last Year
Jan 23 2017 // Arkansas forestry officials say 2016 was a relatively quiet year for wildfires, but the fires still burned nearly 30 square miles in the state. The Arkansas Forestry Commission says there was a total of 1,248 wildfires...
Tornadoes, Hurricanes and Fires… Oh My! Southeast Weathers Tough 2016
Jan 23 2017 // It is fair to say 2016 was the year of the catastrophe in the Southeast. Tornadoes, drought, floods, hurricanes and wildfires impacted virtually every state in the region. For the insurance industry, these events made for...
