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Flying over the Texas panhandle, the patchwork quilt of farmland that once signaled my arrival is now obscured from view. The Amarillo sky that country musicians write songs about is shrouded by an orange-brown haze. Although the fires aren’t visible from the plane window, several thousand feet below, they burn with a ferocity and devastation never before seen in Texas history.
Last season’s abundant rains grew the brush big and tall. So when a decayed utility pole fell, its spark lit a fire that would devour more than one million acres of land—an area roughly the size of Long Island.
Smokehouse Creek + Windy Deuce Fires, 2024
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Fred and Judy Hart have lived in these plains their entire lives. In a matter of hours, the Windy Deuce fire rendered their home into a shell of crumbling brick and mangled metal.
As they sift through debris, Judy describes their back porch and the hanging baskets of flowers they had recently planted in anticipation of spring.
Fred reminisces about a baseball signed by George W. Bush while surveying the charred remains of his home. He always imagined himself taking it with him if he ever had to evacuate.
“Now, it’s somewhere in that heap,” he says.
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In these vast, windy stretches of Texas, wildfires are inevitable. But this one, unprecedented in its scale, raged with relentless intensity.
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Volunteers, aided by a detachment of U.S. Army Drill Sergent trainees, bring cases of water and supplies into Celebration Family Church, which was transformed into a temporary shelter and resource center in the wake of the fires.
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At the Hutchinson County Airport in Borger, volunteers load donated hay bales for delivery to ranchers in need. The airport tarmac and environs were converted into a staging ground for disaster relief.
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A man loads cattle feed into the back of a pick-up truck on its way to ranchers in need. The Philips 66 refinery is seen in the distance.
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Scorched farmland near State Highway 136. On the horizon, a pumpjack, a mainstay of the oil-rich region, remains operational.
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In the blackened yard beyond the Hart house, a bird, soft and innocent, lies still beneath a tree. A reminder of the fragility of life. How nature’s fury spares nothing, not even this tender little bird.
