UPDATE
Thursday, April 7, 10:14 a.m: KPR's J. Schafer reports that Kansas officials say all major wildfires across the state have now been contained and are under control. Ben Bauman, the spokesman for the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, says the massive wildfire burning in northwest Oklahoma is no longer presenting a threat to counties in southern Kansas.
Original story:
Firefighters struggled to contain a large wildfire in northwestern Oklahoma on Wednesday. The fire has burned 86 square miles near the border with Kansas — the same area where blazes last month scorched hundreds of square miles.
The fire was sparked Tuesday by "arcing power lines" that touched the dry ground because of gusting winds. The Oklahoma Forestry Service says structures have been lost in the northwest Oklahoma fire, and in another blaze in central Oklahoma, but damage assessments are still underway.
In Kansas, other fires have burned 18 square miles of rangeland. In the northern part of the state, about 6,000 acres were burned in Geary County and more than 1,500 acres in Riley County. Another 3,800 acres burned in Morton County in far southwest Kansas.
Tuesday's powerful winds also spawned a 100-mile-wide dust storm in the Texas Panhandle, with winds of up to 60 mph spreading dirt picked up from Colorado and Kansas.
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