Wildfires that have devastated large swaths across southern Kansas continue to threaten communities and livestock alike.
Even Friday, nearly four days after gusty winds quickly fueled a large grass fire originating in the Oklahoma panhandle, the Ranger Road fire was only roughly 20% contained. That fire quickly spread, stretching out over 283,000 acres — an area about one-third the size of Rhode Island — much of it in southern Kansas.
“They need rain or snow soon,” reports Iolan Karie White, whose brother, Ty, is in the thick of the firefighting efforts in Clark County, south of Dodge City.
Ty White, 50, is a member of the Englewood Volunteer Fire Department, and has been battling blazes pretty much non-stop since Tuesday.
“I talked to him (Thursday) night for about 10 minutes,” Kari said. “He’s had seven hours of sleep since Tuesday.”
His reports are something out of a horror movie.
Two of his fellow partners in the fire department were injured Tuesday, and are now hospitalized in a burn unit in Wichita. “And they only have 12 volunteers to begin with,” Kari noted.
In addition, one of the Englewood department’s trucks was destroyed. “All that’s left is the box,” she said.
Ty White lives in Ashland, situated about 20 miles northeast of Englewood.
Both communities were under mandatory evacuation when the raging wall of fire crept dangerously close.
That meant Ty had to pause his firefighting efforts to help with evacuations, including helping his boss clear livestock from a ranch in Ashland. (That livestock was saved, but the fire was so close that one of the ranch’s trailers was destroyed, Kari said).
The evacuation order was lifted Tuesday night. Ty’s house was unharmed.
Others weren’t as lucky. The Englewood fire chief’s mother lost her home in the fire. And the fire chief’s cattle were spotted jumping off a cliff because the fire got to the animals before he could clear them.
Thousands of acres of pasture land, livestock and homes are destroyed.
MEANWHILE, Karie watches from 4 ½ hours away, knowing there’s little she can do — for now.
“I try not to ask what he’s doing,” she told the Register this week.
