Photo: Sam Mooy / Getty Images
High winds have caused wildfires to burn through large swathes of Nebraska, leaving a former fire chief dead and at least 15 firefighters injured , reported the authorities.
Retired Cambridge firefighter passed away Friday night while working with the others officers as an observer in Red Willow County, in the southwestern part of the state. The flares have so far burned over 78 miles (202 square miles) in Furnas, Frontier and Red Willow counties this Sunday afternoon.
Furthermore, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said fire officials were working to contain the flames, and authorities are unclear how much was contained.
For her part, Alyssa Sanders, from NEMA, said that the former officer John P. Trumble, of Arapahoe, of 66 years old, was affected by smoke and fire after his car skidded off the road on Friday due to poor visibility due to smoke and dust
. His body was found Saturday morning.
Also at least 15 firefighters were injured while dealing with the blaze, including five who were injured while extracting Trumble’s body from the vehicle, however, a spokeswoman for the state agency said she had no details on their status.
So far fires have been reported in 14 counties in Nebraska as of Friday, including Perkins, Dundy, Burt, Butler, Scotts Bluff, Cheyenne, Duele, Blaine, Cherry, Brown and Thomas counties.
The state entity said that these other fires had been extinguished or largely contained this Sunday afternoon.
The agency did not provide estimates of the total area burned by the fires or the number of houses and other structures that were destroyed. About 100 calves died when a fire in Rising City burned down different delivery sheds, and at least three fire engines were damaged or destroyed by the flames.
Sanders reported that full details about the fires were not available to him because local fire departments were handling the response to most of them.
In addition, small towns such as Cambridge, Bartley, Indianola and Wilsonville in southwestern Nebraska and Macy in the northeast were forced to evacuate due to the fires.
On the other hand, the state National Guard deployed three helicopters and several support trucks to help extinguish the fire.
Likewise, in New Mexico, 20 wildfires continued to burn across the state this Sunday, including one fire that had spread to the point of consuming 80 square miles (217,56 square kilometers) of land.
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- Inc forestry in New Mexico caused two deaths, forced evacuations and damaged homes