Dateline: March 13, 2006

Three firemen injured as wildfires burn county 

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Smoke billows from a wildfire near Hedley Sunday afternoon on a day that saw hundreds of thousands of acres consumed by flames. Photo by Karen Watt.

Local and area firefighters continued to battle wildfires Monday afternoon, a day after three Howardwick firemen were seriously injured and undetermined thousands of acres were burned.

At least three separate fires burned property in Donley County as other fires destroyed rangeland, homes, and lives in other areas of the Texas Panhandle as winds in excess of 50 mph pushed flames through explosively dry grass and brush.

Two fires burned near Hedley on Sunday afternoon, one near the Rowe Cemetery and another west of the city, starting near CR 20 and CR W, according to officials at the Donley County Sheriff’s Department. One estimate put the burned area at about 2,000 acres, and US 287 was shut down at one point. One abandoned house was destroyed, but several occupied homes were spared.

Another fire started in the northwest portion of the county near the intersection of CR B and CR 6 and burned up to I-40 then headed east. That fire caused a great deal of damage and stopped traffic on I-40. A multiple vehicle accident near Groom took four lives and injured several others.

“I’m told it looked like Armageddon up there,” Clarendon fireman Chuck Robertson said.

The I-40 fire raged east, and a Howardwick fire truck overturned on an embankment near the state safety rest area, seriously injuring three firemen. Jeff Cook, James McMorris, and Joey Garcia were all taken to North West Texas Hospital in Amarillo for treatment.

Closed sections of highways and diverted traffic caused a huge log jam of travelers in Clarendon Sunday evening that some reports say had 700 vehicles stalled. Traffic on US 287 at one point was backed up to Martin west of Clarendon and to FM 1260 and further east. Traffic north of Clarendon on SH 70 was backed up to the Salt Fork Red River bridge.

No official total was available Monday afternoon for the number of acres burned in Donley County, but Robertson speculated that the total may be four or five times the area that was burned here during the New Year’s Day fire. That blaze destroyed 21,000 acres.

Total estimates of damage in other parts of the Panhandle were being reported between 600,000 and 700,000 acres.

More details will be published in this week’s Enterprise and updated online Wednesday afternoon.