The Epic Texas Panhandle Fire Is Just a Preview

The Texas Observer

Lean Left

High Factuality

The Epic Texas Panhandle Fire Is Just a Preview

Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted with permission from the Sierra Club magazine. On February 26, a tiny flame sparked a mile north of the ranching community of Stinnett, Texas. This part of the Texas Panhandle is sparsely populated—Hutchinson County has 20,000 people and roughly the same number of cows—so no one saw the smoldering patch of tall, dry grass where two county roads intersect. By the time area residents took notice of the smok…