As tens of thousands of acres burned around him on Sunday, Pastor Wade Berry concentrated on the gravel parking lot in front of him.
Behind him was his church – at least what was left of it. In front of him sat about four dozen people in folding chairs, waiting for him to say that they would all be OK.
“Thank you all for being here,” he said at the beginning of an impromptu outdoor worship service. “I’m so, so sorry, it must be so.”
Second Baptist Church in downtown Ranger, about 120 miles west of Dallas, was destroyed Thursday night after flames engulfed the 103-year-old building. The fire, which is driven by the wind, is believed to have started from the flicker of a barbecue pit.
Along a single street, fire broke out from one historic building to another before finally reaching Berry’s shrine. The roof and the third floor collapsed, while the lower half of the structure suffered severe damage from water and smoke.
“We can not go in there yet because it is still too volatile,” Berry said D’Dallas Morning News. “We are almost positive it is nothing short of a total loss. I pray we have experienced the worst we will ever see.
A perfect storm
What happened in the ranger is only part of the devastation caused by the Eastland Complex fires that spread over 54,000 acres on Sunday afternoon, destroying dozens of homes and killing an Eastland County Sheriff’s deputy.
On Sunday morning, the Texas A&M Forest Service said there was potential for new, significant fires near several cities, including Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, San Angelo, Abilene, Childress, Wichita Falls, Mineral Wells, Lampasas and Fredericksburg. By noon, some of these predictions came true.
Temperatures in Eastland County reached the high 70s this week, and combined with gusts of wind between 20 and 30 miles per hour and low humidity, the forest service said it was the perfect storm for additional blazes.
Starting on Saturday evening, new fires started one after the other. In Carboniferous, where 85% of the city was burned in a rapid fog, some firefighters were just sitting for a hot meal and breathing treatments after three 20-hour days in the filled air, when a call came for help. State Highways 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Then, minutes later, a power line just burst from the fire department, igniting flames in a nearby tree. Meanwhile, only two of the department’s four fire trucks were working, with a replacement on the way to Waco. Carbon has struggled to keep up.
“I can not handle this now,” said Wendy Forbus, the fire chief’s wife, as she watched the whole thing. “It’s just never an end.”
At around 1pm on Sunday in the Rising Star, a tornado of steam erupted just over a field of cattle along City Road 230, between US Highway 183 and Texas 206. An hour later, the Texas Emergency Management Agency issued a bulletin stating that d. ‘Fire was. “fast moving” and that residents in the area had to evacuate immediately.
Moments later, Lipan, part of Hood County, went through a mandatory evacuation. Then people in Tolar and Bluff Dale, on the Hood and Erath County lines, were also told to leave.
Residents climbed in hopes of rain Monday
At a news conference Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott said it was their hope that showers “would reduce the possibility of future fires at least in the short term.” Rain is finally expected to come on Monday when National Weather Service meteorologist Monique Sellers said it was falling just under an inch of rain over Eastland County.
“The rain will relieve how dry it is in those grass areas that are susceptible to fire,” she said. “Unfortunately, Monday is the only day we will see rain in the foreseeable future, and the windy days will continue.”
Until then, all the counties concerned were signs of faith that carried people through.
In carbon, firefighters wore T-shirts from the department that read “In God We Trust.” In the Rising Star, there was a banner on a barbed wire fence: “We are never alone. Our Savior is here. “
Back in Ranger, Wade delivered a sermon and dedicated a series of prayers to “everyone who suffers through the forces of nature in Texas.” He mentioned residents who lost everything as their homes were turned into rubble, firefighters from 13 state agencies and 48 local firefighters who went out of their way to help, including Eastland County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Barbara Fenley, who was killed door to door trying to escape the people.
“We are more than just the tragedies we are facing,” he said. “There is beauty in ashes, hope in despair and hope is evident, even in sorrow.”
However, like everyone else in West Texas, Berry admits he has more questions than answers.
Will the city rebuild and start over? He’s not sure. Maybe, he says, they just take what’s left and move it down a few doors. Either way, it does not matter. What he learned in the midst of the destruction is this: It is the bond he shares with his congregation that makes up a church; a shared commitment to loving one another that makes up a community.
“I do not want to minimize everyone’s grief, but how happy we are to see so many come together in this way as we put the unknown,” Berry said.
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