WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Update 5:45 p.m.: Meade County Emergency Management shared that Meade is no longer in immediate threat of the wildfire. There is currently no need to evacuate.

People living in Meade County may soon have to evacuate due to wildfires in the area.

On Sunday at around 4:50 p.m., Meade County Emergency Management and the Meade County Sheriff’s Office requested that Meade residents should prepare for possible evacuations.

A wildfire in the area is now threatening Meade. The wildfire is near 17 Road and P Road, about a half mile west of Highway 23. This is around two miles southwest of Meade.

Meade County Emergency Management transmitted the request through US National Weather Service Dodge City Kansas.

Wildfires in southwest Kansas have been active since Thursday. The Meade Lake fire, as of 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, had burned approximately 44,000 acres. Aviation and ground crews have been working to slow the fire’s growth.

Topeka, Salina, Lawrence and small communities in north-central and northwest Kansas are home to the five most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the state, the World Atlas website says.

Gothic cathedrals have historically been built to be monumental and impressive, drawing eyes toward the heavens while creating an atmosphere that feels sacred.

Pointed arches, flying buttresses, soaring ribbed vaults and intricate stained-glass windows are among architectural characteristics from the Gothic art period, which flourished between the 12th and 16th centuries in Europe.

A Gothic architecture revival then emerged in the 19th century in the U.S.

Gothic churches here show faith, talent, architectural ambition

An article published in December by World Atlas identifies what it characterized as being the five most beautiful Gothic churches in Kansas.

“The state of Kansas’s variety of Gothic churches, built around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, serves as an important reminder of the creative and cultural aspirations of the state’s founders, regardless of whether they were made with local limestone, imported stone, or red brick,” the site said.

Those churches serve as significant representations of faith, talent and architectural ambition, it said.

World Atlas identified the Sunflower State’s five most beautiful Gothic churches as being the following.

Grace Episcopal Cathedral, Topeka

Topeka’s Grace Episcopal Cathedral “offers one of the most compelling combinations of Gothic Revival style and regional limestone craftsmanship in Kansas,” creating a balance “between Gothic drama and Midwestern simplicity,” World Atlas said.

“The current stone cathedral was constructed primarily between 1910 and 1917, although its twin western towers were completed later,” the site said.

The majestic cathedral at SW 8th and Polk was ravaged in 1975 by a devastating arson fire.

But the church was subsequently rebuilt in “one of the most significant late-20th-century preservation achievements in Kansas,” World Atlas said.

The former English Lutheran Church, Lawrence

The rusticated limestone English Lutheran Church in Lawrence is “a great example of Late Gothic Revival architecture on the Kansas frontier,” World Atlas said.

The church was built around 1870, and additions were made around 1900, it said.

“After falling into disrepair in the mid-20th century, preservation efforts by the Lawrence Historic Preservation Alliance and the Kansas State Historical Society saved the building,” World Atlas said. “It was reopened in 1993 as office space, and the adaptive reuse preserved its major architectural features.”

Christ Episcopal Cathedral, Salina

Salina’s Christ Episcopal Cathedral is “perhaps the most academically faithful example of Gothic Revival architecture in Kansas,” World Atlas said.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – An investigation is underway after a teenager was found dead in a wooded area, according to officials.

Kansas City, Kansas, Police say they were called to the 300 block of Steward Avenue around 11 a.m. where they found a 17-year-old male unconscious in a wooded area. He was pronounced dead at the scene, officials say.

The teenager was identified as being from Kansas City, Kansas.

Authorities said additional information will be released after an autopsy and a continued investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-8477.