Wildfires raging across Kansas have driven thousands from their homes, as some 2000 firefighters converge on the 650,000-acre blazes.
This Kansas Highway Patrol trooper arrives just in time to rescue a driver whose truck was stuck on a highway median as raging wildfires approach.
About 2,000 firefighters are currently battling the fires that have consumed more than 1,000 square miles of farmland.
State Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Katie Horner says the number of helicopters dumping water on the fires increased Wednesday from six to nine.
This is possible because flying conditions are safer due to calmer winds.
More than half of the blaze has burned in Clark and Comanche counties, both ranching and farming communities along the state’s southern border with Oklahoma.
The most populated area affected is Reno County, where 10,000 to 12,000 people voluntarily evacuated their homes Monday.
By Wednesday, 1,000 to 2,000 residents of the county remained displaced.
Horner says she can’t yet provide a cost estimate of the fire damage.
(AP)
