Ferocity of Flames in Texas Leaves Residents Devastated and Stunned

McLEAN, Texas -- When a massive wildfire rolled through this part of the Panhandle on Sunday, most of the Seven Cross cattle ranch went with it. Eleven thousand acres of grazing land is now charred dirt dotted with blackened shrubs and the bloated corpses of at least 100 cows that died while trying to escape the flames.

Surveying his property, ranch owner L.H. Webb could do little more than square his shoulders and vow to somehow rebuild. This ranch has been in the family for 100 years, Webb said, and he’s not about to give up now.

“It’s a shock, there’s so much loss in one fell swoop,” he said. “The fire came through so fast, it may not have all sunk in yet.”

All across the Texas Panhandle, stunned residents are trying to come to terms with devastation of historic proportions. Wildfires have consumed more than 840,000 acres and killed 11 people since Sunday, and still they burn.

Three major fires, each about 50% contained, continued to burn in parts of eight counties. In the 24 hours starting midday Monday, the state responded to more than 200 fires covering 191,000 acres.

On Tuesday, a 2-mile-long fire sprang up near the town of McLean, east of Amarillo, sending tall stacks of smoke into the air. Planes loaded with tanks of fire retardant were dispatched to the area.

High winds that fanned the flames Sunday were relatively calm Tuesday, but south winds with 45-mph gusts were expected today. “There’s the potential for a bad day,” Texas Forest Service spokesman Warren Bielenberg said.

For Webb, any uptick in wind speed is irrelevant. “There’s not much left to burn here,” he said.

On Sunday, as others fled the area, Webb stayed behind to save his house with the help of the local Fire Department.

As immense wheels of fire rolled in from two directions, Webb hurried to the cattle pens to let the animals out.

About two thirds of his black Angus and Hereford cows survived the flames, some losing all of their hair or parts of their ears, tails or hooves. Webb’s foreman shot about 50 cows -- badly maimed by the fire but still breathing -- to put them out of their misery.

Everywhere in the region the smell of smoke is heavy.

Turn down almost any country road and fields of blackened earth go on for miles. Telephone poles smolder days after a fire tears through, as do dirt roads and ravines. The grasslands of the Panhandle now look like a vast, scorched desert.

Near the town of Alanreed, a 100-year-old homestead belonging to Bob Sherrod was burned to the ground, with only a brick fireplace left standing. The fire was capricious, destroying the house and barn but leaving an outbuilding between them untouched. A neighbor saw the house burn while Sherrod and his wife were away and ran to let the horses out. The animals bolted to safety, but everything else was lost.

Sherrod’s rodeo trophy buckles and saddles are now a pile of cinders. Stacks of delicate Haviland plates have melted into a solid hunk of wedding china. The flames burned so fiercely that what had been a jar of pennies is now a ball of coins covered with melted glass.

In Roberts County, northeast of Amarillo, the bodies of four men found Monday were identified as oil field workers who apparently drove off a gravel road and got stuck in a ravine.

“Investigators think they tried to leave their car and were overcome by smoke,” Sandy Carr of the Roberts County Sheriff’s Office said. “It was so dark and there was so much smoke you couldn’t see. They tried to outrun the fire but couldn’t.”

The bodies were found within 50 yards of the car.

The men were identified as Roberto Chavira, 42; Arturo Dominguez, 32; Merdardo Garcia Jr., 25; and Gerardo Villarreal, 30.