Fire chief of Texas town in region hit by wildfires dies fighting separate blaze

The fire chief of a small town in the Texas Panhandle region where large wildfires have been burning died responding to an unrelated structure fire Tuesday, officials said.

Fritch Fire Chief Zeb Smith was responding to a structure fire in the city at around after 7 a.m. when he went inside to check for people who needed rescue and never came out, a spokesman for the Hutchinson County Office of Emergency Management said.