News Wrap: Texas crews fighting largest wildfire in state’s history

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• Amna Nawaz:

  In the day's other news: Fire crews in Texas fought to gain ground on what's now the largest wildfire in the state's history.

  It's already burned across more than a million acres, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. In the Texas Panhandle, heaps of ash are all that's left of these families' former lives.

• Jason Wilhelm, Wildfire Victim:

  You know, it was heartbreaking. It's our home.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The Smokehouse Creek Fire claimed Jason Wilhelm's house in the town of Canadian. He was away. His wife fled with what she could.

• Jason Wilhelm:

  A lot of sentimental things, blankets, pictures. The kids got some of their toys, a few things. But other than, that's really it. That's all she could fit in her car.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The fire is the largest in a cluster still blazing in the Panhandle. By this morning, the Smokehouse Creek Fire alone had burned more than 1,700 square miles and was just 3 percent contained.

  Earlier this week, unseasonably warm temperatures and high winds sent flames barreling across farmland and through towns, fueled by dry grass and vegetation.

• Woman:

  You got to go. You have got to go now.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Hundreds were ordered to evacuate, but unpredictable conditions pushed walls of fire across highways, blocking an escape. An 83-year-old woman was found dead in her burned home in Stinnett, Texas.

  Officials say scores of houses have been destroyed and tens of thousands of cattle could be lying dead in scorched fields. Satellite images showed the town of Fritch in Hutchinson County before and after the Deuce Fire reduced it to ash.

• Deidra Thomas, Hutchinson County, Texas, Emergency Management Department:

  I know that there are a lot of people still waiting to get into Fritch.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Deidra Thomas with the county's Emergency Management Department warned residents to brace themselves for the damage.

• Deidra Thomas:

  The easiest way to put this is, I don't think a lot of the folks that live in the Fritch area are probably going to be prepared for what they're going to see as they pull into town.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Officials also predict the flames could pick up again this weekend.

  Nim Kidd, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief: I don't want the community to feel a false sense of security that all of these fires will not grow anymore.

• Amna Nawaz:

  For now, cooler temperatures and lighter winds have opened a crucial window for firefighters to tame the blazes.

  On Tuesday, another fire burned close to the nation's main nuclear weapons assembly plant near Amarillo. The site reopened after the fire shifted north.

  Former President Donald Trump today appealed a ruling that bars him from Illinois' presidential primary ballot. The judge found he incited insurrection, the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Trump's lawyer argued that — quote — "Staying the judgment until the Illinois appellate courts finally decide this case would reduce the great risk of voter confusion."

  The U.S. Supreme Court is already considering a similar case from Colorado.

  Congress is moving to head off a partial government shutdown this weekend. The House passed a short-term spending bill today and sent it on to the Senate. The measure funds one set of federal agencies through March 8 and another group through March 22.

  In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has renewed his warning to the West that it could risk nuclear war over Ukraine. That comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that sending NATO troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out. Putin responded today in Moscow in his annual address to Parliament, painting Western leaders as reckless in their support for Kyiv.

• Vladimir Putin, Russian President (through interpreter):

  We also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. What they are doing now, trying to scare the whole world, it does risk a conflict with nuclear weapons, which means the destruction of civilization. Don't they understand this, or what?

• Amna Nawaz:

  The United States and other NATO members have already said they would not send forces to Ukraine.

  Back in this country, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin got grilled at a House hearing for letting the president and others go days without knowing he was hospitalized last month. He said there was no lapse in command structure while he was treated for complications from prostate cancer surgery.

  At the same time, Austin acknowledged to Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik that transparency is essential at all levels.

  Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense: If a service member was in a hospital, I think the chain of command would be concerned about why they are in a hospital and make sure they are doing the right things to take care of them and their families.

• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY):

  But don't you think it is their responsibility to notify their commanding officer?

• Lloyd Austin:

  I think…

• Rep. Elise Stefanik:

  The answer is yes.

• Lloyd Austin:

  … it's possible, yes. In my case, I would expect that my organization would do the right things to notify senior leaders if I am the patient in the hospital.

• Amna Nawaz:

  A Pentagon review of the incident has concluded there was no indication of ill intent or any attempt to cover up.

  The Biden administration will investigate smart cars made in China that could gather data on drivers and track their locations. U.S. officials warned today they pose a risk to national security. In a statement, the president said — quote — "China's policies could flood our market with its vehicles. I'm not going to let that happen on my watch."

  And, on Wall Street, stocks finished their fourth straight winning month. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 47 points to close at 38996. The Nasdaq rose 144 points to an all-time high. The S&P 500 added 26 and also reached a record high. For the month, the Dow gained 2 percent, the Nasdaq surged 6 percent, the S&P was up 5 percent.

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": a Palestinian-American artist's exhibit in Indiana is canceled in response to the Israel-Hamas war; a community parks advocate gives her Brief But Spectacular take on the power of nature; plus much more.