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EASTLAND COUNTY—The smell of smoke from charred grasslands and fields lingers along State Highway 6 and Farm-to-Market Road 2526, roads into Carbon, a small Eastland County town devastated by wildfires that broke out March 17 and claimed the life of Eastland County deputy Barbara Fenley, who died evacuating residents when her patrol car became stuck in a pasture engulfed by flames.
As of March 22, the Eastland Complex fires—four wildfires that scorched Eastland County and spread to neighboring Brown County—were 60% contained, thanks to the efforts of firefighters from across Texas and other states such as California, Colorado, Nevada, and Florida.
Rains on March 21 also soaked the area, dampening smoldering pockets which had threatened to burst into flames again, fanned by high winds as they had been the day before.
The damage to Carbon is extensive. The sheriff’s report shared on Carbon Community Baptist Church’s Facebook page revealed 151 structures had been destroyed by the fire, which burned whole streets full of homes only a block from the church. Jody Forbus, Carbon Community pastor, also serves as chief of the town’s volunteer fire department and owns the local Ag & Outdoor store.
Responding rapidly to the tragedy, Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief rushed a quick response kitchen unit to Carbon to offer meals for first responders and survivors. Fredy Quain of Athens and volunteers manned the mobile food truck during its short deployment.
Serving first responders at Eastland
In its ongoing partnership with the Salvation Army, SBTC DR deployed a separate team of volunteers to Eastland to staff a large Salvation Army kitchen and serve first responders, including forestry service personnel, firefighters, and the veterinary emergency response team from Texas A&M University at College Station.
The DR team set up next door to Stanley Ford at Eastland and made breakfasts, lunches, and suppers for the frontline workers, some of whom were housed in a village of climate-controlled tents erected on the parking lot.
The Aggie veterinarians, under the direction of Dr. Wesley Bissett, were treating small animals and pets, some at a temporary headquarters at a nearby cattle auction facility. The team of 17 vets and techs also visited local vet clinics and area ranches, where they observed a significant loss of pets and livestock and treated injured herds. They also wrapped the paws of search and rescue dogs to protect them.
Expressing appreciation for SBTC DR and Salvation Army’s efforts to feed them, veterinarian and A&M professor Dr. Debra Zoran described the team’s nearly 24-7 work, including late-night callouts for sick animals. “On these deployments, typically when you’re super busy … you need fuel to keep going,” Zoran said.
The opportunity to interact with first responders like the firefighters and Aggie vets keeps the SBTC DR volunteers going, too, team leader Debby Nichols of Texarkana said. “We like to look them in the eye and tell them to have a good day,” Nichols said, adding that team members had also prayed with responders.
SBTC DR volunteer Sharon Grintz spoke of praying with a Carbon couple who lost their home but found the wife’s first wedding band amidst the debris.
Nichols said the team expected to work through March 24.
Marilyn McVey of Flint said she came to SBTC DR following management careers in the grocery business. McVey and her husband, Brad, moved from northern Missouri to retire early on Lake Palestine three years ago. They attended an SBTC DR training course at their new church, Flint Baptist, and found their retirement calling.
“All the background we’ve had, the places we’ve worked, it’s just amazing that God prepared us for this,” McVey said, adding that Brad also has served on recovery teams but that she mostly stays with feeding.
Nichols’s team of eight SBTC DR volunteers plus two Salvation Army volunteers from Big Lake, sisters on their first deployment, split time between cooking in the trailer, serving food, welcoming guests, and maintaining the eating area.
Jimmy Stanford, Salvation Army Texas division emergency services manager, praised the working relationship between his organization and SBTC DR, noting multiple deployments in which he personally had worked with the volunteers present and many others.
“We actually love the partnership with the Baptists,” Stanford said.
As of March 22, 54,463 acres had burned in the Eastland County Complex. Most evacuees from Brown and Eastland counties had returned home. Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed on March 18 that wildfires dating from late February posed an imminent threat to 11 Texas counties: Brooks, Brown, Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, Grayson, Mason, Potter, Randall, Reynolds, and Williamson.
The wildfires weren’t the last of the disasters to strike the Lone Star State this month. Dozens of tornadoes spawned by severe weather beginning March 21 prompted a second disaster declaration from the governor the next day for Bastrop, Cass, Cooke, Grayson, Guadalupe, Houston, Jack, Madison, Marion, Montague, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rusk, Upshur, Williamson, and Wise counties.
More than half the SBTC DR volunteers came from towns and counties affected by high winds and tornados that struck while they were deploying at Eastland. A brief tornado warning even sent the volunteers to seek shelter in Eastland themselves.
SBTC DR Director Scottie Stice confirmed that recovery teams are deploying to Eastland County.
Storm response begins in East Texas
In other SBTC DR news, in response to the recent tornadoes, Stice said that an SBTC DR quick response kitchen and shower unit is scheduled to arrive in Jacksboro on March 23. Assessors have also traveled to the Round Rock area, including Hutto, Elgin, and Taylor, to determine needs. Assessment continues in the Texoma area and has already occurred in Crockett and Madisonville. Additionally, a shower and laundry unit requested by county emergency management will deploy to Ore City.
A large SBTC DR operation including assessors, recovery volunteers, a command post, shower unit, generators, and bunkhouse trailer is established at New Beginnings Baptist Church in Gilmer, Stice said. Teams will minister to survivors from the Gilmer area.
Romania and Moldova
SBTC DR workers departed March 21 with a Send Relief team on a fact-finding mission to determine how to best minister to Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country for Romania and Moldova. A second Send Relief team, also with SBTC DR volunteers, will depart for Eastern Europe on March 30, Stice confirmed.
“We call up and they go,” Stice said. “We are happy to serve survivors in Texas and throughout the world and bring the love of Jesus to them.”
Donations to SBTC DR can be given here.
