Larry Konrade of Ashland likes hunting everything from doves to huge whitetail bucks. 
 
 But when he left his house Tuesday morning with a favored rifle, he was dreading the day. He felt even worse when it was over. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Racy updates the status of the Clark County fires from the command post in Ashland, Kansas. (March 7, 2017) 
 
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 “It’s horrible, just horrible. I left the house with (60) shells and used them all,” Konrade said. He said he probably killed 40 cows, “and in a lot of places there weren’t even very many left alive to put down.” 
 
 Konrade, an accountant by trade, had spent the day helping a local Clark County rancher destroy cattle maimed in the wildfire that he says burned almost the entire county. 
 
 “All in all, I’d guess I seen between 300 and 400 dead cattle,” he said. “It was just a matter of putting animals out of their misery, doing them a favor. They were going to die anyway. 
 
 “It’s horrible out there, the things I saw today. The fire was so big, and so much of Clark County burned, I don’t see how anything lived through it.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Firefighters from across the state battle wildfires Monday night and Tuesday morning near the towns of Protection and Ashland. Thousands of acres were burned by wind driven fires. (video by Bo Rader / kansas.com / March 6, 2017) 
 
 Very few cattle did, according to Randall Spare, co-owner of Ashland Veterinary Center. 
 
 “Let me put it into perspective: If someone had 500 cattle on their ranch, I’d guess at least 80 to 90 percent were killed in the last day,” Spare said. “That’s not including the calves; we’re really getting into calving season and there was a lot of baby calves on the ground.” 
 
 Thinking of some of his customers, Spare estimated they lost at least 1,600 adult cattle and probably another 500 calves, or more. That could equate to losses well into the millions. 
 
 One fire came up from Oklahoma, endangering the tiny town of Englewood. Another started north of Ashland and eventually endangered the county seat. Both towns were evacuated. 
 
 Konrade talked of driving about 20 miles through Clark County and seeing nothing but burned areas for as far as he could see. 
 
 “Even those big old cottonwoods, the ones with the alligatory bark, they were burned bare about 15 feet up,” Konrade said. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Fire pushed by 30 mph winds jumped a road just south of the Kiowa/Commanche county line Tuesday afternoon, March 7, 2017. Firefighters tried to keep up with the speed of the fire as it burned out of control. (Video by Bo Rader / The Wichita Eagle) 
 
 Spare, the veterinarian, said conditions could not have been worse for endangering livestock. 
 
 “These cows were pretty comfortable, just starting to calve, and there was plenty of grass for them,” Spare said. “These ranchers out here are good stewards; they know how to take care of their pastures. 
 
 “But a lot of grass can be a double-edged sword. That’s a lot of fuel that can burn in a hurry.” 
 
 Konrade said local ranchers, and most area residents, knew there could be bad fires this year. 
 
 “Every time you come back in (from hunting or working in pastures) you knew how much fuel was there,” he said. “We’ve gotten good moisture the last three years. 
 
 “It’s been dry lately, so you know if you get 60 miles-per-hour winds and anything ignites it, it’s going to burn fast. Still, we never dreamed it could all burn up that fast, but it did.” 
 
 He spoke of a 22,000-acre ranch that was basically untouched at Monday’s sunset that was mostly ashes by Tuesday’s dawn. About any area that hadn’t burned Monday caught on fire Tuesday. 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Drone footage shows burned fields and a burned out barn and garage near Ashland, Kansas. After the fires swept through, winds started stripping away the topsoil, creating dust storms. (Courtesy video) 
 
 As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, he said volunteer crews were fighting the fire along the Cimarron River near the Oklahoma border south of Sitka. 
 
 “It’s burning hot, and it’s gotten down in all that tamarack and thick brush along the river,” he said. “God only knows when that might stop. It could burn all the way down to Stillwater, Oklahoma.” 
 
 Cattle weren’t the only things Konrade saw dead as he euthanized cattle on Tuesday. Wildlife also took a serious hit over much of the area. 
 
 “I saw a lot of dead deer, a lot,” he said. “I think I saw maybe 20 deer alive, one coyote, one quail and four rooster pheasants. 
 
 “We had so much, especially quail, before the fire,” said Konrade, who also runs a hunting guide service in the fall and winter. “I think the outfitting deal may be over, at least for a few years. I don’t see how anything could have survived through what just happened. 
 
 “I hope I’m wrong. It doesn’t look good. It’s horrible.” ||||| (CNN) Rancher David Bouziden lost his home, his ranch and nearly all his cattle in wildfires that swept through Kansas this week. 
 
 "I'd say personally we probably lost close to 150 head, maybe," he said. "That's probably 90% of our cattle." 
 
 Bouziden barely escaped the blaze, which set a state record for the most widespread single fire. On Monday, he was plowing a fireguard on his ranch in Clark County in Southwest Kansas when flames propelled by near-70 mph winds struck the pasture, he said. The smoke engulfed him, forcing him from his tractor to struggle through soot and ash. He could hardly see, he said, but managed to distinguish the outline of a hay shed where his pickup truck was parked. 
 
 Bouziden was able to drive to safety, but nearly all his cows were killed in the fire that consumed his home, three outbuildings, hay barns and machinery sheds. 
 
 "It burned every acre of the ranch. There's not a blade of grass standing out there." 
 
 A cow grazes by a wildfire near Protection, Kansas, early Tuesday. 
 
 Bouziden's family has been in ranching for nearly 100 years, since his grandfather bought a few cattle in the 1930s. "This is all I've ever done," he said. 
 
 His experience is typical of ranchers in Kansas this week, where grass fires have scorched more than 650,000 acres, devastating farming and ranching communities. 
 
 The destruction has been particularly pronounced in Clark County. 
 
 Randall Spare, a veterinarian in Ashland, the county seat, said Wednesday it's too early to make a guess as to how many cattle were lost in the blazes; ranchers are still trying to assess the damage. 
 
 A pair of badly burned cows stand along a rural road near Ashland, Kansas, early Tuesday. 
 
 "It's probably at least 2,000. It could be 6 or 7,000," he said. 
 
 With spring approaching, many of the cows were calving, Bouziden said, and if the calves are added to the count, the number of animals lost could nearly double. 
 
 'The perfect storm' 
 
 The fires have been perpetuated by low humidity and heavy winds, conditions that have made the Kansas Plains a tinderbox. The state saw a particularly wet summer last year, said Todd Domer, spokesman for the Kansas Livestock Association. According to Domer, the grass that it brought is now fueling the fires. 
 
 Cattle graze with a background of smoke from wildfires near Hutchinson, Kansas, Tuesday. 
 
 "We had the perfect storm," he said. "We had a wet summer and then kind of a dry winter and then you get wind on top of that and then anything that's flammable will spark." 
 
 Domer spoke about the emotional toll an event like this takes on ranchers. 
 
 "They're geared to take care of cattle and have cattle be healthy and grow and be productive," Domer said. "When you have to switch gears mentally and deal with injuries and death on a massive scale, it can be pretty tough." 
 
 Huge loss of infrastructure 
 
 The devastation for ranchers' businesses is far reaching. Not only have they lost an unknown number of cattle, but the livestock that have survived have no grass or hay to feed on, most of it having been consumed by the flames. 
 
 "It looks like the moonscape," Domer said. "It just looks like a big sand beach that's endless." 
 
 The fences that lined the edges of the pastures, they're gone, too. "That's a rancher's infrastructure right there," Domer said. "That's a huge loss." 
 
 He said early estimates have the cost of fencing at $10,000 per mile. 
 
 "There could be 100,000 miles of fence," Spare said. 
 
 He's been focused on helping his veterinary clients assess the damage. When asked they dealing with the losses, Spare said, "They care so deeply for their livestock. They're more concerned with their livestock's welfare than their own." 
 
 Wildfires swept by high winds burn near Protection, Kansas, on Tuesday. 
 
 Bouziden, who, like many of his neighbors, is focused on dragging the dead cattle into a pile to get a physical count. 
 
 "It's entirely devastating," Bouziden said. "You've got a home there with all of your belongings and 40 years of living, and it's gone." 
 
 But the generosity and support of his community and groups like the livestock association, which is heading up relief efforts, is helping him through. 
 
 "It's really heartwarming to see how your neighbors react in a disaster like this," he said. "It's that way all over the country. People want to help." ||||| SHARE COPY LINK As large wildfires in Hutchinson, Kan., continue to burn, fire crews work to get them under control. Some residents that have been evacuated are returning. Jill Toyoshiba The Kansas City Star 
 
 As large wildfires in Hutchinson, Kan., continue to burn, fire crews work to get them under control. Some residents that have been evacuated are returning. Jill Toyoshiba The Kansas City Star ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Alex Johnson 
 
 At least six people have been killed and thousands of others have been forced from their homes as wildfires continued raging Tuesday across hundreds of thousands of acres in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, authorities confirmed. 
 
 Fire activity was slowing across the region, but red flag warnings and fire weather watches, signifying serious fire conditions, were in effect into Wednesday afternoon from northern Iowa to northern Oklahoma, including almost all of Missouri and Kansas, the National Weather Service said. 
 
 "We are in a situation that can quickly become dangerous for the public and even firefighters due to the extreme fire weather conditions that can rapidly develop this time of the year," George Geissler, director of Oklahoma Forestry Services, told NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City. 
 
 "As we continue to see normal firefighting tactics proving less effective and more time-consuming, we ask that everyone be aware of these conditions and use extreme caution with anything that can spark a fire," he said. 
 
 At least four people have been killed in Texas, authorities told NBC News, three of them in Gray County in the Texas Panhandle. 
 
 Flames and smoke envelope a grain elevator early Tuesday in Sitka, Kansas. Bo Rader / AP 
 
 Two were identified as Cody Crockett and his girlfriend, Sydney Wallace, both of whom were in their early 20s. The third victim was identified as Sloan Everett, about whom no information was immediately available. 
 
 A man in his mid-20s whose identity was not disclosed was found dead in the road near Lipscomb, the Lipscomb County Sheriff's Office told NBC News. The man had gotten out of his vehicle and was overtaken by the fire, it said. 
 
 In Harper County, Oklahoma, an unidentified woman was killed after she had a heart attack while trying to evacuate cattle from the fires, emergency management officials told NBC News. 
 
 And in Clark County, Kansas, Corey P. Holt, 39, of Oklahoma City, died of smoke inhalation after he tried to back up his semi-trailer on state Highway 34 because of limited visibility from the fires, state Trooper Michael Racy told NBC News. 
 
 A plane drops fire retardant on a wildfire near Amarillo, Texas. Amarillo, Texas, Fire Department 
 
 Holt's truck ran off the road and jackknifed, authorities said. He was overcome by smoke when he got out of the truck, they said. 
 
 Crockett's sister, Callie, told NBC News that her brother and Wallace were helping Everett move cattle because of the fire in Gray County. 
 
 "He was on horseback, and they were in these sandhills, and they just got caught up in the midst of all the fire," Callie Crockett said. 
 
 "We are in a situation that can quickly become dangerous for the public and even firefighters due to the extreme fire weather conditions that can rapidly develop this time of the year." 
 
 Cody Crockett met Wallace when he was hospitalized for typhus two years ago, his sister said. Wallace was his nurse. 
 
 "We used to say 'thank God for typhus,' because that's how Cody met Sydney, and we love Sydney," Callie Crockett said. 
 
 Temperatures reaching into the 80s, low humidity and fierce winds are believed to have started most of the fires beginning overnight Sunday and Monday. The winds, topping 50 mph in some places, continued to severely hamper crews' efforts to stop the fires on Tuesday. 
 
 The largest fire, in Lipscomb and Ochiltree counties in the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle, was at nearly 300,000 acres and was about 50 percent contained at noon Tuesday, the Texas A&M University Forest Service reported. 
 
 The fire in Gray County was estimated at 92,571 acres and was about 25 percent contained, the agency said. 
 
 In Reno County, Kansas, 10,000 to 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes because of a fire about 50 miles northwest of Wichita, the state Emergency Management Department said. 
 
 Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday that he had asked the governors of Wyoming and South Dakota to send extra equipment. 
 
 Meanwhile, another fire in Beaver County, Oklahoma, on the Texas border, was at 180,000 acres, the state Emergency Management Department said.
– Devastating wildfires have set a record that the Kansas Division of Emergency Management says "it never hoped to see and never hopes to surpass." More than 500,000 acres in two counties in the southwest of the state have burned this week in what is believed to be the biggest fire in the state's recorded history, the Kansas City Star reports. Some ranchers have lost their homes along with almost all their cattle, with the number of livestock deaths believed to be in the thousands, CNN reports. Veterinarians say calving season had just gotten underway, making this the worst possible time for fire to sweep through grasslands. "It's horrible out there, the things I saw today," hunter Larry Konrade told the Wichita Eagle after a day spent helping a rancher put down livestock badly burned by the fire. "The fire was so big, and so much of Clark County burned, I don't see how anything lived through it." The fires also swept through parts of Oklahoma and Texas. They caused at least six deaths, including three people killed while trying to evacuate cattle, and forced thousands from their homes, NBC reports. Authorities blame "extreme fire conditions" including temperatures reaching into the 80s, strong winds, and low humidity.