Churches, homes destroyed as Texas wildfires continue to rage

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Churches, homes destroyed as Texas wildfires continue to rage

By Lynn Herrmann.


Caddo - Wildfires ravaging the state of Texas continue impacting its residents, with the Possum Kingdom Lake community that has lost 160 homes and two churches thus far to the fires likely taking “years” to recover.

The PK Complex wildfires, a series of wildfires in North Texas that spans two counties in the Possum Kingdom Lake region and has so far scorched 208,000 acres remains a major fire, with the Texas Forest Service reporting it as being 25 percent contained.

Palo Pinto County Sheriff Ira Mercer notes the fires have had a devastating effect on the area, stating: “It will be years before this is back to what it used to be,” according to the San Antonio Express News.

Most of the destroyed homes in the PK Complex fire, which first started about a week ago, are weekend or summer homes in the resort community of Possum Kingdom Lake. The area, however, remains unsafe and homeowners have not been allowed to return.

“No residents will be able to come back in until the area is totally safe,” said Liz Caldwell, spokeswoman for the federal incident management team overseeing the PK fire, the Express News reports.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 1.4 million acres of land have been charred by 819 wildfires, destroying 424 structures in the process. Compounding the problem are fires in the state that are local responses only, requiring no state assistance. According to Texas Forest Service (TFS) data (pdf), those 5,422 local response fires have burned over 350,000 acres and have destroyed 478 structures.

Combined, those numbers amount to more than 1.8 million acres burned with 902 structures lost in the process and are staggering, considering the state has yet to reach its normal dry season of mid-June through September.

The Rockhouse Fire near Fort Davis in West Texas, reported on earlier by Digital Journal, is now 75 percent contained and has burned over 202,000 acres. The Energy Release Component (ERC) is a combination of live and dead fuels that contribute to potential fire intensity. According to the TFS, the ERC for Fort Davis is expected to reach 105, a historic high for the area. As the live fuels cure and dead fuels dry out, the ERC increases.

The state’s situation is so dire that governor Rick Perry on Thursday issued a proclamation, “Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas” that urges residents to pray for an end to the wildfires and drought conditions, as reported by Digital Journal. His proclamation has thus far had little effect.

Much of the state remains in an extreme or exceptional drought category, with long-term forecasts showing no improvements. As the state approaches its typically hot and dry summer months, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico making landfall along its central coastline are likely the only scenario bringing any relief to current drought conditions.

Watch Video:  Raw Video: Texas Wildfires Torch Ranchland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo3pnEsXYdM

Churches are among the victims of Texas wildfires

Posted Friday, Apr. 22, 2011 0



For a century, Cedar Springs United Methodist Church, a small white chapel at a rural crossroads, had withstood wind and fire and everything else the Texas prairie elements brought to bear. That ended on the night of April 15. A shifting wind defied the efforts of firefighters. Sparks caught, and when the burning was done, all that remained of the church was two rock pillars.

"It wasn't nearly as much a loss for me as it was the people who had roots in that church for over a hundred years," said the Rev. Jim Senkel, the pastor. "As one lady told me yesterday, one of the longtime members, it seems as if we should hold a funeral service for the church. It was that dramatic for them."

The horrific wildfires of recent weeks, especially those around Possum Kingdom Lake, have been nothing if not indiscriminate. As of Friday, about 160 homes had burned, and two churches were destroyed -- Cedar Springs Methodist, near the community of Brad about 10 miles south of the lake, and First Baptist Church of Possum Kingdom Lake.

For Senkel, this was the second time in six years that nature has taken his sanctuary. In 2005, fire also destroyed First United Methodist Church in Cross Plains and its parsonage when he was its pastor.

On Friday, Senkel was philosophical.

"I just realize that we live here on earth, and until Christ comes back, there's going to be disasters of one type or another," said Senkel, whose congregation consists of a few families. "People are worried about tornadoes. In the coastal areas, they have hurricanes and everything else. So we look forward to the time that Christ comes back and we don't have any more problems."

First Baptist, a few miles away, burned the same night as the United Methodist sanctuary. The Rev. Dennis Trammell, pastor of the Baptist church, which draws about 100 people each Sunday, was arriving home after a family vacation when he was notified that the building was ablaze. His residence a few hundred yards away has been spared through the repeated efforts of firefighters.

"We got to come on in and see the church burn," Trammell said Friday. "It seemed like it wasn't real. You went to bed that night and hoped you'd wake up the next morning and have it all be a dream. Of course it wasn't."

At Cedar Springs United Methodist, many in the small congregation have not had time to grieve the loss of their sanctuary. On Friday, some were still in a fight to save their homes. Others were poking through charred wreckage of the places they had lived.

"I'm more concerned with the people," Senkel said. "The building means a whole lot to everybody, but it's just a building, just an object. The memories that went with the building are more important than the building itself. But the congregation, the people, are more important than that."

Senkel said it's too soon to tell whether the church will rebuild.

"Until everyone feels safe from the fires, moment by moment, that's secondary," he said.

Trammell said there's no question that his church will be rebuilt.

"The whole question is how or when," Trammell said.

On Friday, Trammell was contemplating his Easter morning sermon, to be delivered to his congregation in the Family Life Center, which was spared by the flames.

"None of our church members have lost their homes, but there will be a time when we will grieve as a community for the community," Trammell said. "There will be some prayers and singing and a sermon of some sort. In a nutshell, it will be looking back on the sanctuary and remembering. I want people to share their memories.

"But then the sermon will transition into the message that what we have is far more than we have lost. We have each other. We haven't lost any life. And we have God."