The raging Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas continues to rage as area farmers and ranchers take stock of the massive loss of livestock and land they now face.
Shane Pennington, 56, is a ranch manager near Canadian, Texas, who told CNN about the devastating loss of dozens and dozens of cattle from a herd he has worked hard to cultivate over the years.
He said when he and his staff returned to the ranch after the fire that killed two people, he and his staff found about 50 dead cattle, while some suckler cows were desperately searching for their lost calves.
“We’re not finding many calves,” he said. “So I know they burned down.”
The flames that engulfed the ranch a few days ago decimated Pennington’s herd, causing horrific injuries to some of the cows that were not killed.
Ranch Manager Shane Pennington shared the devastating aftermath of the Smokehouse Creek Fire. More than fifty members of his flock are dead, and he expects to lose even more to the effects of the flame
Dead cows continue to be found on properties across Texas, days after the worst of the Smokehouse Creek Fire devastated the area
Some of the animals’ tails were burned, others were blinded by the flames.
“It just burned all the hair,” he said. “Their feet are coming off. Their hooves are bloody.”
Pennington gestured to a calf whose feet were burned and told the reporter he wasn’t sure the baby animal would make it.
‘It is extremely difficult to see them suffer. Some of them I have raised since they were babies,” he said. “It’s just hard.”
When he saw the fire moving toward the ranch last week, he said he felt no fear.
‘I wasn’t afraid. I was even angrier, I think. “If I’ve been taking care of this for 20 years, it can all be over,” he said.
‘I wasn’t really afraid of the house, I thought it would be fine. I was more concerned about the cattle.”
He said that when he made the decision to evacuate the ranch, he felt like he “wasn’t doing enough” to save his herd.
He explained that despite his desperate attempt to save as many cows as possible, “I didn’t have time and the way it came up, I couldn’t go anywhere with them.”
Farmers and those in the wider agricultural sector say the bushfire, which has burned more than a million hectares of land, will continue to impact the livestock industry for years to come.
As Pennington explained, it takes years to build a solid herd, and traumatized cows often cannot reproduce.
“Your job is to keep them alive,” he said. A job made exponentially more difficult by the devastating effects of the fire.
“It’s going to do a lot of damage to the company.”
‘It is extremely difficult to see them suffer. I’ve raised some of them since they were babies,” Pennington said of his herd. ‘It’s just hard’
One person has been confirmed dead and dozens of cattle have also been killed, while devastating video shows cattle burned in the aftermath of the wildfires sweeping through Texas.
Gruesome footage shows cattle rushing into their herds to get away from the smoke and flames
Devastating video shows livestock being burned in the wake of wildfires sweeping across Texas
A firefighter from the Flower Mound Fire Department helps contain a wildfire in the panhandle region of Texas
“Houses have burned in almost every direction,” Hemphill County Judge Lisa Johnson told local newspaper The Canadian Record
The aerial photo shows the damage in the aftermath of the Texas wildfires
The wildfires sweeping across the Texas Panhandle have led to evacuations, power outages and the temporary closure of a nuclear weapons facility.
Last week, Republican Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties in his state experiencing the impact of the out-of-control flames.
“Texans are urged to limit activities that could cause sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe,” Abbott said.
More than 5,400 people in Texas were without power for a day last week because lines were down due to fire damage.
The Pantex plant, the nation’s main facility that assembles and disassembles the U.S. nuclear arsenal, evacuated most of its workforce Tuesday evening.
The next morning, however, Pantex announced that the facility was “open for normal day shift operations” and that all personnel were required to report to their assigned schedule.