Nebraska battles largest-ever wildfire and other blazes

Multiple wildfires, including the largest in Nebraska's history, have burned through more than 600,000 acres of the state, local officials said Sunday.



As of Saturday, the biggest wildfire, the Morrill Fire, had burned 460,000 acres and killed one person, Governor Jim Pillen said. It and three other major fires across central and western Nebraska remained entirely uncontained as of Saturday, state officials said.



Bad weather related to a severe winter storm in the Midwest has hampered fire suppression efforts, according to an incident management team run by the federal National Interagency Fire Center, which said on Sunday that it had assumed management of the two largest fires, the Morrill Fire and the Cottonwood Fire.



The Cottonwood blaze has burned more than 100,000 acres as of Saturday, according to a press release from the governor's office, the Nebraska National Guard and the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.