photo by: Travis Heying/The Wichita Eagle via AP

Deer stand in a field near a wildfire near Ness City, Kansas, on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. High winds across the central and northern plains on Wednesday resulted in several road closure and wildfires

Fires that erupted across Kansas continued to burn Thursday as the state responded to a wind-whipped storm that also churned up dust and reduced visibility for drivers, causing three fatalities.

The storm system on Wednesday carried winds that reached up to 90 mph in some areas. The winds combined with low humidity and dry vegetation and grasses to fuel fires in parts of western and central Kansas.

The dust reduced visibility on roads across the state, causing three fatalities, 20 injury accidents and 51 non-injury accidents, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

Trego, Ellis, Russell, Sheridan, Rooks and Osborne counties were among those reporting fires that ignited and spread quickly. Numerous homes, outbuildings and other structures were destroyed but no fatalities were reported by Thursday afternoon.

Most of the state was under an enhanced, significant or critical fire outlook, state officials said.

The National Weather Service in Wichita said the Russell County sheriff reported at least 10 homes were destroyed in fires that stretched over 150 square miles. Greg Rose, a 911 emergency dispatcher, said seven of the county’s nine fire departments were out Thursday fighting blazes that rekindled overnight.

Kathleen Fabrizius, emergency management director in Trego County, said many fires were still smoldering Thursday in big trees, hay bales and power poles. She knew of four homes destroyed, along with numerous outbuildings, equipment and old homesteads.

She said some of the fires were in remote areas that were up to 10 miles apart.

“We can’t get to them because of the distance and because, frankly, we don’t have the resources to get there,” she said.

The number of acres burned across the state was still being tabulated.

Kansas deployed helicopters and other firefighting equipment from the Kansas Army National Guard and the Kansas Forest Service to western and central counties to help with fire suppression efforts.

Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of emergency because of the elevated danger of wildfires Thursday and Friday.

The Guard’s UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters are equipped with buckets that can drop water on areas that are difficult for ground crews to reach, the Adjutant General’s office said in a news release. The Kansas Forest Service will have single engine air tankers and ground resources on standby.

The three fatalities in two separate accidents in southwest Kansas were “definitely” caused by low visibility from blowing dust, trooper Mike Racy said Thursday.

Two people died in Grant County after multiple vehicles collided. Racy said investigators were trying to determine what happened.

In Haskell County, the driver of a semi-trailer truck rear-ended a vehicle that he could not see after it stopped on U.S. 83, the patrol said. The vehicle’s driver, Rocio Marieno-Sanz, 47, of Mexico, was killed. Her passenger Jose Quinonez, 55, of Mexico, was hospitalized with serious injuries. The truck driver was not injured.