Dateline: March 16, 2006

Fires take heavy toll 

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Wildfires scorched the Texas Panhandle this week, destroying lives and property while stretching fire departments to their limits.

The greatest toll for Donley County came from the Interstate 40 fire, which burned ten times the area of the big New Year’s Day fire and caused three firemen from Howardwick to be seriously injured.

The fire started in Donley County near the intersection of County Roads B and 6 when a downed power line ignited dangerously dry grass about 11 a.m. Sunday.

Unseasonably warm temperatures and winds gusting up to more than 60 mph fueled the fire.

“The flames jumped I-40 and burned into Gray County,” said Clarendon’s First Assistant Fire Chief Jeremy Powell. “It burned pretty much down the highway and burned through Alanreed and back into Donley County. One finger went off toward Wheeler, and the main fire headed for McLean.”

Clarendon volunteer firemen used every resource available to them to help fight the fire, Powell said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, local and area firemen were still battling the fire south of McLean, and Powell was not optimistic that it could be contained before forecasted high winds hit Wednesday.

“I just don’t see any way that we’re going to be able to stop it today [Tuesday],” Powell said. “I’m afraid it’s going to take off again tomorrow [Wednesday].”

Warren Bielenberg with the Texas Forrest Service said his agency was tentatively saying the Interstate 40 fire had burned 220,000 acres in different counties, but he said that number would likely grow.

“We’re getting satellite imagery analyzed in College Station, and I think it’s going to turn out to be a much bigger number,” Bielenberg said.

Bielenberg also said that as of Monday, the Interstate 40 fire had already burned an area 11 miles wide and 30 miles long.

Smoke from the I-40 fire caused one major accident that injured five people and killed six near Groom. DPS Trooper Daniel Hawthorne said fatalities included Susan Louise Schumacher, 49; Lawrence Schumacher, 56; and Alexis Burroughs, 14, all of Grove, Okla., as well as 46-year-old Karen Lachelle DeWeese of Wagoner, Okla.

The Hutchinson Fire

The I-40 fire was tragic enough, but a fire that started in Hutchinson County will go down as the worst wildfire in Texas history for burning 432,000 acres. That blaze cost seven lives, destroyed several homes, killed livestock by the scores, and caused the evacuations of several Panhandle communities.

An electrical short reportedly started the Hutchinson County fire, and Bielenberg said it took 45 minutes for their plane to fly the perimeter of the area, which was 45 miles wide and 12 to 15 miles across.

The Rowe Fire

Smaller fires also kept local departments busy with the first igniting about noon Sunday in the Rowe Cemetery near Hedley. Again the cause was a downed power line, but Hedley City Secretary Randy Shaw said the blaze was cut off when it ran into a plowed field. No estimate was available for the area burned.

The Crow Hollow Fire

Another downed power line ignited grass near the intersection of County Roads 20 and W west of Hedley and burned to the Crow Hollow Feed Yard.

Hedley, Memphis, and Clarendon firemen fought the blaze and eventually contained it, but not before it destroyed one abandoned house, threatened several homes, and jumped the eastbound lanes of US 287.

An estimated 1,500 to 2000 acres were destroyed.

The FM 1260 Fire

And yet another fire started Monday afternoon south of US 287 on FM 1260 where still another power line sparked the grass. Shaw said that blaze was squashed quickly, but it still consumed 40 to 50 acres.

The danger is not yet over and won’t be without considerable rainfall. Local officials still urge everybody to be extremely careful and to observe the total fire ban, which is still in effect in Donley County and still includes home barbecue grills.