Past the terracotta canyons and sloping hills in the Texas Panhandle is a colorful, small town center. A vibrant mural of the town’s name greets visitors, the yellow and blue paint from a historic motel can be seen in the …
When a spate of wildfires tore across the Texas Panhandle in February and scorched 20,000 acres of Craig Cowden’s ranch near Skellytown, he decided he had had enough. Cowden took on a second unofficial job: looking for possible fire hazards …
LUBBOCK — Spring rains have revived much of the green grass covering stretches of plains in the Texas Panhandle — the same land that, just three months ago, was black from fire and ash after wildfires burned more than 1 …
AMPA — A company hired to inspect utility poles in the Panhandle declined to testify before Texas lawmakers Wednesday, as part of the state’s inquiry into the Smokehouse Creek fire — the largest wildfire in state history that burned more …
LUBBOCK — There are burned spots on Jay O’Brien’s ranch outside Stinnett that predate the Smokehouse Creek fire. Over the last several months, small fires — ones that weren’t pushed by strong winds or grew out of control — scarred …
LUBBOCK — Firefighters have completely contained the Smokehouse Creek fire in Hutchinson County after a nearly three-week battle with what quickly became the largest wildfire in Texas history. That inferno and a series of other wildfires killed at least two …
LUBBOCK — Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is creating a legislative committee to investigate the Texas Panhandle wildfires to ensure the state is prepared for future disasters. His Tuesday announcement comes more than two weeks after the deadly infernos first …
(Xcel Energy Inc. will likely be wrangling for years with the legal fallout from the wildfires burning through the Texas Panhandle. The experience of utility companies in California and Oregon sued over massive blazes sparked by downed power lines shows …
LUBBOCK — Texas firefighters are gaining more control over the remaining wildfires in the Panhandle, more than two weeks after the infernos first engulfed large swaths of the region and burned more than 1 million acres. As of Monday, the …
Massive wildfires sparked by power lines used to be a California problem, one many utility executives considered safely confined to the Golden State. No more. Texas officials on Thursday blamed the state’s largest-ever fire on electrical lines sparking in dry …
