Fires in the Panhandle

[greybeard]

It's amazing how fast and big the fires in West Texas get. Just driving through there you'd think a fire would never get out of control like they do. Can't imagine losing a ranch that you spent a lifetime growing in a matter of hours or minutes. It would be very hard not to risk it all to save the livestock. My wife has been helping feed this year for the first time and drove up on a momma that had just stomped her newborn to death trying to fend off buzzards. It upset her so much that I can't imagine just leaving a whole herd to their self during a fire.

The men and women that go fight thses fires do an amzing job trying to contain the impossible.

Most of the world (myself included 99.99% of the time) will run away from those kind of fires. A few brave, skilled, trained and half crazy superhumans run toward them and take fire straight on, double fisted and ironclad. There stands America!

 

[kenny thomas]

Most of the world (myself included 99.99% of the time) will run away from those kind of fires. A few brave, skilled, trained and half crazy superhumans run toward them and take fire straight on, double fisted and ironclad. There stands America!

You done your part in Vietnam,
I done mine with 48 years of fires. Its just how we lived.
I actually told my wife this morning that I should go help somehow. She said NO

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

About 10 years ago during the last big drought we had around Throckmorton, Tx, my neighbor has a ranch there of about 15,000 acres when the big fires hit that area. His son was on horseback driving his herd and cutting fences when the wind shifted and encircled him. He left two kids under the age of 8.

 

[greybeard]

You done your part in Vietnam,
I done mine with 48 years of fires. Its just how we lived.
I actually told my wife this morning that I should go help somehow. She said NO

Thank you, but it's apples to oranges. I did it once, for 13 months, destroying things and taking lives. You did it for almost 600 months, year after year after year, preventing property damage and saving lives.

One of the latest news articles coming out of the Canadian area:

"Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall described the charred terrain as being "like a moonscape. ... It's just all gone."

Kendall said about 40 homes were burned around the perimeter of the town of Canadian, but no buildings were lost inside the community. Kendall also said he saw "hundreds of cattle just dead, laying in the fields."

 

[kenny thomas]

@elkwc this looks fairly close to you. Are you guys ok?
What the news article above describes brings back memories of the fire i was on near there in OK. It burned everything in its path. Grass, hay, cattle, fences, equipment. The ground looked barren.

 

[Texas G@l]

Several firefighter friends from this area have been deployed to assist. We talked to one and he said it was the worst he had seen in his almost 30 year career. His used the term "scorched earth" with everything in it's path just destroyed.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

With the wind and heat involved how wide of a firebreak does it take slow/stop this fire from advancing?

 

[Dave]

With the wind and heat involved how wide of a firebreak does it take slow/stop this fire from advancing?

There have been two big fires in recent years. One by Lake Chelan and the other by Brewster where the fire jumped the Columbia River. If a mile wide river isn't big enough nothing man made is going to work.

 

[Brute 23]

With the wind and heat involved how wide of a firebreak does it take slow/stop this fire from advancing?

Kenny can probably explain how they handle one of this magnitude.

There is a formula for how much of a break vs the flame height That can be used it normal situations. The problem is with this level of intensity, and the right conditions, this thing could be launching embers 600, 800yds or more ahead of the fire and starting spot fires, which then draw to each other, and intensify. I'm not sure if they can stop some thing like this with a mechanical break. You really need a large area of black, another fire, a wind change, some thing to help.

We ran in to a situation on the coast where the wind shift and the humidity dropped. It started launching embers off our back burn and started spot fires outside the burn area. By the time we and the fire dept got that under control what little back burn we had lit and ran toward the icw and had turned and become a head fire coming off the water.

You could look and see a head fire with flames coming over the tree tops. The vfd on scene did not want us to light any more. I'm talking treating us and some very heated exchanges. They thought they could stop 20'+ flames with a couple water trucks and a 20' mechanical break. It was not going to happen. We had 3 blocks, a couple thousand acres each, between the water and a main hw. What we ended up doing is the main guy got in to an argument with them and we went on the opposite end and lit a back burn, agaisnt their "orders", to try to get as much black (hundreds of yards) between the head fire and the mechanical break to contain it to that block. When they realized what was going on they were POed but luckily a supervisor or some thing for the area showed and told them that was the only option. We worked on a couple sports fires that were jumping out but we did get enough of a back burn they when the two fires met it was over.

The saying you have to fight fire with fire is very true in a lot of cases.

 

[greybeard]

1 million and 80,000 acres (almost 1700 sq miles) burned. More land than King Ranch was when it was at it's largest. Hard to visualize, even for someone born and raised in Texas.
Ag commissioner Sid Miller stated this morning, that it is likely that 10s of thousands head of livestock have been killed and there's little or no forage left for surviving herds to eat.
Collection points are being set up to donate hay, feed, fencing supplies and other ranch supplies.

• Gray County Animal Supply Point: Clyde Carruth Pavilion, 301 Bull Barn Drive, Pampa. Contact Marcus Preuninger at 806-669-8033 or 325-728-0477.
• Hemphill County Animal Supply Point at Canadian AH&N Ranch Supply, 100 Hackberry St., Canadian. Contact Andy Holloway at 806-323-9114.
• Donations of hay can also be made through the Texas Department of Agriculture Hay Hotline.
• And, a relief fund has been established through the STAR Fund Disaster Assistance through the Texas Department of Agriculture.
• Direct monetary donations in Gray County should be sent to: City of Pampa – Attn: Finance, Box 2499, Pampa, Texas 79066-2499, reference 02/27/2024 Fire,
• or made by phone or in person at FirstBank Southwest-Pampa at 806-669-8007. Reference City of Pampa donation for Smokehouse Creek Fire.
• To make donations for people who lost their homes in Hemphill County, go to First Baptist Canadian at http://fbccanadian.org/firehelp/.

I've never been much on those GoFundMe things but:

Donate using GoFundMe's Texas Wildfire Relief Hub

The folks at GoFundMe have created an official hub to make it easier for people to make a donation that will truly support Texas wildfire victims.

All fundraising campaigns listed on www.gofundme.com/c/act/wildfire-relief/texas have been reviewed and verified by GoFundMe's Trust & Safety team.

 

[Warren Allison]

Our AG commissioner was a member of the same fraternity i was in at UGA. I am going to reach out to him. I remember during our severe drought in 1986,, ZERO rain from March til October, farmers from all over, Texas included, sending hay by the trainloads to Ga. We had a great year for hay here in GA in 2023. I bet the Texas AG commissioner has already put the word out, but won't hurt to reinforce that message. One thing I have learned about Texans.. you can't keep them down for long. They can take care of themselves, and will, but even Superman can use a little help now and then.

 

[kenny thomas]

With the wind and heat involved how wide of a firebreak does it take slow/stop this fire from advancing?

There is no fireline that can be built to hold it. Its jumping 4 lane highways like it is a cowpath.

 

[Allenw]

Right kenny thomas.

Until you experience a fire at the level these get to fueled by high winds with gusts to 50mph with some up to 60mph and bone dry standing fuel, it's hard to understand what it's like. We had ash falling with the fire still a hundred miles away and burnt stems and such when it was about seventy or eighty miles away.

Fortunately there has been some rain today over the Texas panhandle and hopefully they are getting things under control.

 

[Ouachita]

Right kenny thomas.

Until you experience a fire at the level these get to fueled by high winds with gusts to 50mph with some up to 60mph and bone dry standing fuel, it's hard to understand what it's like. We had ash falling with the fire still a hundred miles away and burnt stems and such when it was about seventy or eighty miles away.

Fortunately there has been some rain today over the Texas panhandle and hopefully they are getting things under control.

Yeah, when they get like that, they can start producing their own weather system

 

[Double R Ranch]

1 million and 80,000 acres (almost 1700 sq miles) burned. More land than King Ranch was when it was at it's largest. Hard to visualize, even for someone born and raised in Texas.
Ag commissioner Sid Miller stated this morning, that it is likely that 10s of thousands head of livestock have been killed and there's little or no forage left for surviving herds to eat.
Collection points are being set up to donate hay, feed, fencing supplies and other ranch supplies.

• Gray County Animal Supply Point: Clyde Carruth Pavilion, 301 Bull Barn Drive, Pampa. Contact Marcus Preuninger at 806-669-8033 or 325-728-0477.
• Hemphill County Animal Supply Point at Canadian AH&N Ranch Supply, 100 Hackberry St., Canadian. Contact Andy Holloway at 806-323-9114.
• Donations of hay can also be made through the Texas Department of Agriculture Hay Hotline.
• And, a relief fund has been established through the STAR Fund Disaster Assistance through the Texas Department of Agriculture.
• Direct monetary donations in Gray County should be sent to: City of Pampa – Attn: Finance, Box 2499, Pampa, Texas 79066-2499, reference 02/27/2024 Fire,
• or made by phone or in person at FirstBank Southwest-Pampa at 806-669-8007. Reference City of Pampa donation for Smokehouse Creek Fire.
• To make donations for people who lost their homes in Hemphill County, go to First Baptist Canadian at http://fbccanadian.org/firehelp/.

I've never been much on those GoFundMe things but:

Donate using GoFundMe's Texas Wildfire Relief Hub

The folks at GoFundMe have created an official hub to make it easier for people to make a donation that will truly support Texas wildfire victims.

All fundraising campaigns listed on www.gofundme.com/c/act/wildfire-relief/texas have been reviewed and verified by GoFundMe's Trust & Safety team.

Thank you for this list. I've been searching for places to donate but without social media it's been near impossible to find legit sources to donate

 

[Hamiam]

My heart goes out to all the Texans affected. I'm sure they will be needing everything from Hay, Feed, Fencing materials, etc.

 

[tater74]

About 10 years ago during the last big drought we had around Throckmorton, Tx, my neighbor has a ranch there of about 15,000 acres when the big fires hit that area. His son was on horseback driving his herd and cutting fences when the wind shifted and encircled him. He left two kids under the age of 8.

Sloan Everett?

 

[Hpacres440p]

Not sure of the legitimacy of this organization, but one of our local ranchers is helping to coordinate a hay run from the Oglesby location.

 

[elkwc]

@elkwc this looks fairly close to you. Are you guys ok?
What the news article above describes brings back memories of the fire i was on near there in OK. It burned everything in its path. Grass, hay, cattle, fences, equipment. The ground looked barren.

Kenny yes we are ok. The fires in the TX Panhandle were approximately 50 miles west of us. Over a million acres burned. The first in NW Oklahoma were approx 60 miles NW. Around a 100,000 acres. Have seen pictures from friends and others. Very similar to the Rhea fire. Each fire has consumed many houses, barns, corrals, buildings and thousands of miles of fence. I didn't see this post until this afternoon. Just after I read it I got a phone call from a grandson asking if we had heard there was a fire at or around a gas plant a 1/2 mile west of one of our pastures. Had a fire 2 years ago there that burned over 100 acres and a mile of fence. Ended up it was a mile west of the plant. Burned an old church down that has been there around a 100 years and over a 100 acres. Fortunately the wind was low today and had a light rain so they got it under control fast. We had a wet summer. There is lots of old grass. So a fire spreads fast. We have been fortunate to this point knock on wood. Our conditions are prime for a fire. We have had a wet winter. Had a few days in the mid 80's last week. Have lots of winter grass coming. Also some of early grasses are greening up. If we can get some rain hopefully in 3-4 weeks our fire risks will be reduced.We feel for those who have lost so much. It is a part of living in this area. Just like tornadoes a part we accept but never get used too. Appreciate you asking how we are doing. Hope you are doing ok.

 

[kenny thomas]

Yeah, when they get like that, they can start producing their own weather system

I seen this in North Carolina several years ago. A dry swamp on fire and the smoke plume went straight up. From 10 miles away i could see lightning inside the smoke plume. Knowing i had crews at the edge i hurried towards them. It poured rain inside the smoke but not 20ft outside of it. Very scary as i thought it was going to move across our dozer lines. Once it rained a few minutes and cooled it off the smoke plume collapsed and it was over.