Firefighters Rush to Contain Texas Wildfire, Now the State’s Largest on Record

A vast and growing wildfire, one of several burning in the Texas Panhandle, has now become the largest on record in the state’s history, according to state figures on Thursday. The fire has scorched more than a million acres of land, devastating cattle ranches, consuming homes and continuing to rage out of control.

Ranchers, some of whom battled the flames on their own with pickups transformed into makeshift fire trucks, have watched as the grasslands that their cattle rely on for food were transformed into a rolling blackened expanse. One rancher, Jeff Chisum, described walking with surviving calves past the charred remains of adult cows scattered along a road.

“It’s hard to watch,” said Mr. Chisum, whose ranch north of the town of Pampa and directly in the path of the fire ignited on Monday. Nearly all of his 30,000-acre ranch was burned. “We’re in love with the animals and the country, and whenever something like this comes through and destroys it all, it’s hard to swallow.”

The fire, called the Smokehouse Creek fire, is the largest of several that are burning a hole in the heart of Texas cattle country. It was only 3 percent contained on Thursday morning, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The fire has so far burned at least 1,075,000 acres — more than five times the size of New York City — in a sparsely populated area, and has surged beyond the size of the state’s previous biggest wildfire, in 2006.

Firefighters have a limited amount of time to battle the wildfires before higher winds and hotter, drier air are expected to return to the area over the weekend.

Firefighters have been deployed to the region from other parts of Texas, including some from as far away as Lubbock and Fort Worth, under Gov. Greg Abbott’s disaster declaration on Tuesday.