
When the Schwerzenbach family saw a wildfire racing toward their remote ranch in Lipscomb, Texas, there was no time to run. "We had a minute or two and then it was over us," said 56-year-old Nancy Schwerzenbach. The fire, moving up to 70 miles per hour (112 kph), was one of several across more than 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) that hit the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and Kansas last week, causing millions of dollars of damage and killing thousands of livestock.
Burning through nearly all 1,000 acres of the Schwerzenbach ranch, the fire killed some 40 cattle.