The Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma regions of the United States face devastation due to several huge wildfires that have burned more than one million acres of farmland and ranchland this week. The fires have devastated cattle ranches, destroyed homes and left a blackened landscape in their wake.

Wildfires began last Monday and continued to burn late into the week through portions of the Texas Panhandle as hot and dry conditions persisted. The largest fire, Smokehouse Creek, burned almost 1.1 million acres, making it the largest wildfire in state history. As of Friday afternoon, the fire was only 15 percent contained.

Fires have been burning across large parts of the Northern Territory for the past two months. Photo: Nicole Hayes

Other fires have broken out in Nebraska and Oklahoma, where 25,000 acres was lost, reports on Friday said. 

Multiple evacuations were ordered and Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a disaster last Tuesday for 60 counties as emergency crews attempted to contain the fires, US Cattle Buyers Weekly reported.

Governor Abbott said initial damage assessments showed 400 to 500 structures that have been destroyed by the blaze.

The declaration allowed for state resources to be deployed to areas fighting the fires. The fire by Thursday had killed up to tens of thousands of head of cattle, said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

This, though, is a tiny percentage of Texas’s January 1 cattle herd of 12 million head.

A dusting of snow covered a desolate landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle and burned out homes in the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, said an Associated Press story.

This gave firefighters brief relief in their desperate efforts to corral a blaze that has grown into the largest in state history. The Smokehouse Creek fire merged with another fire and was just 3pc contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

The state’s previous largest fire was the 907,245 acre East Amarillo Complex fire in March 2006.

The Texas Panhandle is home to the most concentrated cattle feeding region in the US.

However, feedlots appeared to have avoided damage or cattle deaths, Cattle Buyers Weekly reported.

Cattle were primarily affected by smoke and feedlots were working with veterinarians to ensure that affected cattle returned to good health.