There is currently a fast-moving wildfire sprawling in Texas. On March 17, a large, fast-spreading wildfire began to spread 108,493 acres across the state. Later in the day, strong winds began to pick up and dry grasses contributed and affected the extreme fast moving rates of the fire. Many state, local, federal, and military workers responded to around 20 wildfires that burned 67,533 acres on that same day.

Several other wildfires are also actively burning across the state and causing major damage. This includes the Eastland complex fire and Brown countries, which are still active and burning massive amounts of land at harsh, fast-moving rates. The fires have recently made their way to homes and farms, causing serious and critical destruction. But what’s making these fires so bad? Harsh winds and so much dry, dead grass is what’s making the fire so awful and hard to stop. The winds have been picking up since the start of the week, and have only gotten worse since. The dead, dry grass does nothing but fuel the fires and allow them to move and destroy thousands of acres faster and faster.

It’s still unsure what exactly caused these massive fires, but there are suggestions that they may have been caused by military equipment and firearms. It’s also possible that the fires mainly began due to the harsh droughts currently occurring throughout the state. As for the parts of the state that are not currently in danger, the smoke is what they have to worry about. The flames are currently estimated to be about 30-40 feet high and the smoke a dark black color that covers most of the sun. With all this combined, firefighters and citizens are seriously struggling to stop the fire and protect themselves from the harsh and awful heat.

Though there are currently no ideas of when the wildfires will end or at least die down, firefighters are trying their very best to fight the fire and stop as much of it as they can. So far, the fire has burned around 54,500 acres, but is fortunately 90% contained. Citizens are being evacuated and located to safer places, but the wildfire still remains very difficult to control.