This week marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest wildfire in state history. The blaze tore through over 1 million acres in the Panhandle last February and March, leaving scars both on the land and on the lives of those who lost homes and livelihoods.
While lawmakers in Austin promised bills to strengthen wildfire prevention and emergency response, communities are still rebuilding.
Rachel Osier Lindley, a senior editor for The Texas Newsroom, visited the area this week and said the fire was able to spread fast due to the exact right conditions.
“Conditions the day [the fire] began were basically a perfect storm for fire. It was a very dry period in the Panhandle, unseasonably warm. And it also began on a windy day, sustained winds from 30 to 40 mph,” she said. “It spread very quickly and moved extremely fast.
“Two people were killed, and over a million acres burned and much of that was ranch land. More than 15,000 cattle were killed in the fire, and it also ripped through these small towns dotting the Panhandle. Along the way, over 100 homes and businesses were destroyed.”
In the weeks after the fire, Xcel Energy acknowledged that one of its downed power lines started the fire.
“There have been class-action lawsuits since then,” Osier Lindley said. “And those continue. And I talked to several people who feel like Xcel Energy prioritized their profits over people in the Panhandle.”
Beth Ramp, who has a ranch outside the small town of Canadian, said she still struggles with anger over what happened.
“It would be a lie to say that there’s not a lot of anger, and I think it’s growing even instead of lessening, because at the time, you just want it to be okay,” Ramp said. “You just want to get your stuff together. You don’t have time to think about why. And now the why is all over us. We know why.”
Ramp lost her home in the fire, and she said her anger sparks regularly, every time she realizes she needs something like winter boots or a winter coat that was lost in the blaze.
Osier Lindley, who visited Canadian in the aftermath of the fire and again one year later, said the state of recovery depends on the person.
“Canadian has a population of just over 2,000 people. More than 50 homes in that town were lost. So if you did not lose your house personally, you know someone or multiple people who did,” she said. “There isn’t one person who wasn’t affected. And of course, these memories are coming back this week.”
Mallori Willhelm, a mother of five and the wife of a rancher, said the anniversary of the fire is bringing up a lot of emotions.
“I’m feeling a lot of emotions that I kind of thought that I was past,” Willhelm said. “Just reliving like, oh, one year ago today, I was in my home that I lost one year ago tomorrow, clueless that my life was about to change. So very emotional, but grateful. There’s so, so many good people. And when you go through something like that, that’s when you see I’m actually, one year later, still working on thank you notes.”
Driving around town, Osier Lindley said you can still see where rebuilding efforts are taking place.
“Parts of it look like any other small town in Texas,” she said. “In other areas, you see where these burned-down houses have been torn down. I went to visit a home where you could clearly see the old basement of this 100-year-old house, just steps going into the ground, and these burned remnants of the house around it. So it depends on where you look.”
Ranchers expect their land to take years to recover.
“There was some rain. It is revitalizing a little bit. But ranchers told me that it is still nowhere near what they need to appropriately graze their cattle,” Osier Lindley said. “I heard from some people saying that, especially on the ranch lands, that it could be a three-, five-, even seven-year recovery cycle: rebuilding these herds, replenishing the grasslands and recovering financially.
“And of course, these ranches have thousands and thousands of miles of fencing. And people have told me they’ve been fencing for the last 11 months and still have miles to go.”
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