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Amarillo Burns: July 4th Fire Blitz Erupts
5 Jul
Summary
- Multiple fires raged across Amarillo and Potter County on July 4th.
- A structure fire threatened power lines, causing an outage for over 1,400 customers.
- A local disaster declaration was requested due to high fire danger.
Crews were kept busy responding to numerous fires across the Amarillo area and Potter County on the Fourth of July. A fully involved structure fire near Amarillo Boulevard and Bivins on Saturday, July 4th, at approximately 10:54 p.m. threatened power lines. This incident resulted in an Xcel Energy power outage for about 1,437 customers.
In the Highland Park area, large flames were observed near FM 1912 and 8th Avenue, where structures were threatened by an unknown-sized fire. Additional fires were reported on the northeast side of the city near Willis Knight Street and in the Bushland area. Earlier in the day, a separate grass fire consumed an estimated five acres off I-40 west of Amarillo, but its progression was halted.
Reflecting the elevated fire danger, the fire marshal had requested a local disaster declaration in anticipation of the holiday. This request followed the earlier lifting of a burn ban, highlighting the precarious conditions.
