'Texas is burning from border to border': Million acres scorched after wildfires blaze for a week. Now towns are put on red alert

• Cost of containing fires throughout the state has spiralled to more than $8million
• 22 separate blazes burning throughout Texas
• One fire in Stephen County increased in acreage by nearly 90,000 in just 24 hours
  
• Hundreds have been evacuated and fears grow of flames spreading to big cities
• Some fires burning dangerously close to Oklahoma border, where conditions are also ripe for spread
• Rain forecast for next few days giving weary firefighters some hope
  

Wildfires, raging for more than a week in Texas, have so far burned through a million acres of land and racked up more than $8million in containment costs.

Firefighters continue to battle some 22 separate blazes throughout the state, with some dangerously close to the Oklahoma border. Homes have been gutted, animals killed and hundreds of residents have been forced to leave their homes because of the advancing flames.

One of the wildfires in PK West, Stephens County, increased in size by a staggering 87,238 acres in just 24 hours - a 144 per cent increase.

Even prisons have been emptied in some towns. The drought-stricken state, that experienced its driest March on record, is desperately hoping for the rain that has been forecast in the coming days.

:Read More: