AMARILLO, Texas (AP) — It was a bad day — a very bad day.

The Amarillo Globe-News reports earlier in the morning, wildfires broke out in the western part of the Texas Panhandle in Oldham County near Vega. They moved south into Deaf Smith County and threatened the outskirts of Hereford.

Then separate wildfires started in Randall County, and winds nearing 50 mph were moving fire dangerously close to the villages of Timber Creek, Palisades and Lake Tanglewood.

Then, to make it worse, in the eastern part of the Panhandle, wildfires in Wheeler County began to consume ranch land. That thick dry fuel...