A wildfire that burned around 500 acres inside the city limits of Amarillo, Texas, has been contained but not before threatening the city’s regional medical center.
The fire was one of several that have plagued the Texas panhandle in the past week.
Thirteen structures were destroyed in larger fire 30 miles north of Amarillo, according to Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas. No homes were damaged in that fire, which also has been contained. More than 4,000 acres of grassland burned.
Hanna said the Amarillo fire came up to the parking lot of Northwest Texas Hospital. No buildings were burned by the fire and no evacuations were necessary, Hanna said. However, some facilities suffered smoke damage, including the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, according to local media reports. The center reported it closed on March 19 and 20 in order to clean up from the smoke damage but is scheduled to reopen on March 21.
The regional medical center employs around 4,000, Hanna said. The Amarillo fire is thought to have been started by a downed power line.
Topics Texas
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