Wildfires killed thousands of livestock in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas

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Wildfires that burned about 1.2 million acres in the Texas Panhandle, northwestern Oklahoma and adjacent parts of southwestern Kansas during a 24-hour period last week have killed thousands of livestock, Angie Haflich reports for High Plains Public Radio. On Friday officials in Clark County, Kansas estimated "that as many as 9,000 head of cattle had been killed," while about 2,000 hogs were killed at farms in Perryton, Texas.

At least six people have been reported killed in the three states, Jon Herskovitz reports for Reuters. In Oklahoma, two ranches "lost about 200 head of cattle total and a hog farm operation lost several thousand animals in the wildfires. Many of the grass fires grew rapidly due to dry weather and parched prairie land. Several of the blazes were largely contained on Thursday as hundreds have battled the blazes on the ground and in the air."

Officials said "the fires in Kansas were the largest recorded, at about 631,000 total acres (255,350 hectares)," Herskovitz writes. "Two wildfires that burned through about 164,000 acres (66,370 hectares) in the Texas Panhandle were 100 percent contained on Thursday, and the largest blaze, the so-called Perryton fire of about 318,000 acres, was 75 percent contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.