A Texan nuclear weapons facility has had to shut down its operations as wildfires spread nearby.
Wildfires swept across the Texas Panhandle region early on Wednesday, destroying homes in Hutchinson County, cutting off power to thousands and prompting evacuations.
Pantex, the main facility that assembles and disassembles America's nuclear arsenal, shut down its operations on Tuesday night.
"We have evacuated our personnel, non-essential personnel from the site, just in an abundance of caution," Laef Pendergraft, a spokesperson for National Nuclear Security Administration's Production Office at Pantex, said during a news conference.
"But we do have a well-equipped fire department that has trained for these scenarios, that is on-site and watching and ready should any kind of real emergency arise on the plant site."
Since 1975, Pantex has been the US main assembly and disassembly site for its atomic bombs. It assembled the last new bomb in 1991.
In the time since, it has dismantled thousands of weapons.
It is around 17 miles northeast of Amarillo and around 320 miles northwest of Dallas.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties as the largest blaze, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, burned nearly 400 square miles, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The blaze has doubled in size since it sparked on Monday.
Authorities have not said what might have caused the blaze, which tore through sparsely populated counties surrounded by rolling plains.
"Texans are urged to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe," Abbott said.
Texas state Senator Kevin Sparks said an evacuation order was issued for Canadian, a town of about 2,000 about 100 miles northeast of Amarillo.
Later on Tuesday, the Hemphill County Sheriff's Office urged anyone who remained in Canadian to shelter in place or at the high school gym because roads were closed.
Evacuations were also ordered in nearby Miami, and schools in Canadian and Miami announced closures on Wednesday.
East of Canadian, fire officials across the border in the area of Durham, Oklahoma, also encouraged people to evacuate because of the fire.
Evacuations were also happening in areas such as Skellytown, Wheeler, Allison and Briscoe, according to the National Weather Service in Amarillo.
On Tuesday evening, the fires were 20 to 25 miles from Amarillo, and wind was blowing wildfire smoke into the city, which could affect people with respiratory issues, weather service officials said.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings and fire danger alerts for several other states through the midsection of the country, as high winds of over 40 mph combined with warm temperatures, low humidity and dry winter vegetation to make conditions ripe for wildfires.
In central Nebraska, a mower sparked a prairie fire that has burned a huge swath of grassland roughly the size of the state's largest city of Omaha, state officials said on Tuesday.
