Electric utility Xcel Energy admits that its equipment likely helped ignite the devastating Smokehouse Creek Fire that’s blazed across Texas since last week.
“Xcel Energy has been cooperating with the investigations into the wildfires and has been conducting its own review. Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,” the company said in a statement today.
The blaze has grown into the largest in state history, consuming more than a million acres, killing at least two people, and destroying hundreds of structures. It was still only 44 percent contained as of Thursday morning.