Most of $180 Million Texas Ranch Torched by ‘Devastating’ Smokehouse Creek Fire, Owners Say
‘HEARTBROKEN’
Around 80 percent of a historic Texas ranch currently on the market for $180 million has been destroyed by wildfires sweeping across the state, its owners said. The damage to the 80,000-acre Turkey Track Ranch in the Texas Panhandle is “unparalleled in our history,” its owners said in a statement. They thanked firefighters for their efforts in helping to save the ranch’s homestead and other houses on the property as the Smokehouse Creek Fire blazed across the region. “That said, we are all completely devastated and personally heartbroken by the magnitude of this horrific event not only across our own ranch but that of many others,” they added. One person has so far been killed in the massive wildfires, already on track to be among the worst in Texas’ history. The victim was identified by her family as Joyce Blankenship, an 83-year-old grandmother who died when the flames reached her neighborhood in Stinnett.