A concerted effort is underway to help ranchers devastated by historic fires in the Texas Panhandle last week.
Lee Wells, a rancher in the North Dallas area, told Fox News Digital he felt he had to help after experiencing the tragedy himself.
Trucks transporting feed from East Texas to the Panhandle. (Lee Wells)
“We started seeing these news coming in last week…and we had a million acres of devastation. So we couldn’t just sit around and do nothing,” Wells said. said.
Wells, whose ranch was destroyed in a fire a few years ago, told Fox News Digital that he understands the panic and “now what?” feeling.
Aerial view of wildfires in Texas, USA, February 27, 2024. This photo obtained from social media. (via Patrick Ryan/Reuters)
Flames from the Smokehouse Creek wildfire burn through grasslands in southern Canada, Texas, USA, on February 28, 2024. (Reuters/Nick Oxford)
“And then I started seeing these reports, and I saw these pictures, and I saw these cows lying on the fence, and it all came back to me. It was very shocking to me. I did,” Wells said.
Hay bales are loaded onto a flatbed truck headed for the Texas Panhandle. (Lee Wells)
wells Uploaded to Facebook Last Friday, he put out a call for donations to be sent through his own 501(c)(3), leewellsofficial.com, to help the ranchers. The next day, he contacted the general manager of Northeast Texas Farmers Corp., a grain mill in Sulfur Springs that makes multi-purpose protein feed for horses, cows, goats and sheep.
In less than a week, Wells shipped 56 tons of all-purpose grain to ranchers in the Texas Panhandle. He plans to ship another 50 tons next week and another 50 tons the week after.
Trucks loaded with hay bales are headed toward the Texas Panhandle. (Lee Wells)
“I asked the factory manager, ‘Are you sure you can keep doing this?'” “You’re worried about finding the money. You’re worried about how we’re going to build this. You just keep going. Give it to me,” Wells said. He said he spends more than a dozen hours a day on the phone coordinating relief efforts. Anyone who can donate or support is encouraged to participate. To do so.
Rancher Navy is also a decentralized organization that coordinates donations to support ranchers. Co-founder and co-director Morgan Bloom told Fox News Digital that the group trucked in nearly 40,000 bales of hay for the cows.
“The response from communities across the country has been incredible. We have three semi-trucks leaving from Kentucky, Kansas, Montana, Colorado, California and Idaho. Almost every state in the country has these We’re sending trucks in to donate to the community,’ ranchers,” Bloom said.
Mr Wells said they were able to ship 50 tonnes of all-purpose grain in the first week. (Lee Wells)
He noted that livestock left in the burned areas “have no access to any fodder or fodder and probably won’t be able to get their fields back for another year.”
“So the cows need to be fed during that period,” she says. “So we need ranchers and producers to continue to feed their cattle and continue to support the beef industry across the country.”
Brazil’s Amazon rainforest state reports more than 2,000 wildfires in last month
Officials estimate more than 600 structures have been destroyed in a wildfire in rural Amarillo.
These wildfires include the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest wildfire in Texas history. The fire has burned about 1,700 square miles and spread into neighboring Oklahoma, but was about 44% contained as of Wednesday.
File: A charred vehicle sits near the remains of a home destroyed by the Smokehouse Creek Fire on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, in Fritch, Texas. (AP Photo/Ty O’Neal, File)
The fire chief in Texas, one of the small towns hardest hit by the historic blaze that tore through the Panhandle rivers last week, died Tuesday while extinguishing a house fire, authorities said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Officials have not announced the official cause of the Smokehouse Creek Fire, but a lawsuit filed Friday alleges that a downed power line near the town of Stinnett sparked the blaze on Feb. 26. .
