Focus at Four: Texas A&M AgriLife office in Canadian discuss ‘huge loss’ after wildfire

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Firefighters in the Panhandle have been battling wildfires since last week, and many of the fires are barely slowing down.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, now the largest wildfire in Texas history, is only 15% contained and has burned well over 1 million acres.

This has affected many of the surrounding areas near Smokehouse Creek, including the town of Canadian.

Not only has land been lost, but livestock and homes have not escaped the burn. Two people have been killed in the fire.

Tanya Holloway, the Hemphill County Extension Agent for Texas A&M AgriLife in Canadian joined First News at Four on Monday to discuss what she has been seeing in the area since the wildfire broke out a week ago today.

She said countless livestock have been lost to the fire. For many in the state, livestock is a source of income.

“One of our producers had one lone cow walk up to their house, it was kind of in bad shape. And he had lost quite a few, I don’t know exactly how many the total was. But there are a lot of cattle, that their udders have burned, their feet are burned. It’s just a huge loss, a lot of wildlife,” said Holloway.

During her time working for the AgriLife office, she’s encountered multiple large wildfires in the area.

“Unfortunately, this is our third time at this since we’ve been the agents here. We had a huge fire in 2017, one in 2022, and now here we are in 2024,” said Holloway.

While Holloway works to organize efforts in fighting fires, the Canadian office also works to assemble resources for fire victims.

“We have things for people’s homes where they can come and get things as they’re relocating and trying to get life started back up again. They can come and get necessities to get by until they begin to get insurance money in and get the things they need to establish a new home,” said Holloway.

She said that the community has banded together in this tragedy. They’re working on getting feed and resources out to those affected by the wildfire.

“We’ve got volunteers hauling feed and hay to ranchers because they’re just trying to recover, find what living cattle may have scattered. Ranchers are just trying to find what they have left. And so our hope is we can help them by getting feed and hay out to them directly,” said Holloway.

You can find more information on how to help here on their website, or by calling the office at 806-323-9114.