FRITCH, Texas – As the largest wildfire in Texas history continues to burn, firefighters from across the state, including SE Texas, are on the front lines of the battle to keep homes from burning.
The Houston Fire Department is one of many that has deployed firefighters to help fight the wildfires that have collectively burned well over 1,000,000 acres of land.
The Smokehouse Creek Wildfire is now the largest in state history. So far, the fire has burned 1,075,000 acres of land.
This fire isn’t the only one in the panhandle. Here’s the latest numbers on several fires requiring the assistance of firefighters from across the state:
- Smokehouse Creek - 1,075,000 acres / 3% containment
- Wild Deuce - 142,000 acres / 55% containment
- Grape Vine - 30,000 acres / 60% containment
- Magenta - 3,300 acres / 85% containment
- 687 Reamer - 2,000 acres / 10% containment
On Thursday, the Houston Fire Department allowed KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding to embed with crews as they work to put out the Wild Deuce fire in Fritch, Texas, a town about 45 minutes north of Amarillo.
In this small town, dozens, if not hundreds of homes have already burned to the ground.
“Just completely gone. People lost everything,” said Houston Fire Captain Beau Moreno. “You see these people right here, that they tried to save their home. They try to get the water, the garden hose out and try to put this fire out.”
The Houston Fire Department sent two teams, a total of seven crew members, to the panhandle to help. There’s over a dozen firefighters from several SE Texas departments, including Harris, Galveston and Montgomery Counties.
Most of these crews spent the days in areas already burned by the Wild Deuce fire. Their goal is to stop the fire from rekindling.
“Stuff like this is what we’ll catch this lighter grass right here on fire and then take it and run it again,” said Moreno.
For the first time since the fire started earlier this week, firefighters had a chance to move on the offensive. Mother Nature played a favorable card, dropping temperatures below freezing and laying down 1-2 inches of snow. A natural fire suppression that helped, but didn’t put out the flames.
“The snow is actually helping us. I didn’t expect to come from Houston, Texas and fight fire in the snow,” Moreno said.
As residents start to come back to their properties, some are coming back to just ashes. The lucky few that still have a house are counting their blessings.
“There’s no luck to that. I’m blessed. The good Lord took care of me,” said David Gaines. “I said, Lord, I’ve been here nearly 40 years. You’re not going to let me you’re not going to burn me out today, are you?”
Somehow, the fire seemingly bended around his house. The flames destroying a mobile home and storage facilities in his yard, but only melting the siding on his house.
Not only did his house survive, but so did his horses out in the pasture.
“Tried to get them to come to the barn. They wouldn’t come,” Gaines said. “Well, it was smoke and I was like, all right, boys, you’re on your own. They hadn’t been out of the stall since then, and they’re mad at the world.”
Now the focus is turning back to the weather that just helped these firefighters.
Forecasts are bringing much warmer temperatures and lower relative humidity - which are prime conditions for wildfires.
This is a developing story. Stay with Click2Houston.com for updates.