In late February, destruction hit the Texas Panhandle in the form of a historic wildfire. The fire rapidly spread across more than 1 million acres, establishing it as the largest wildfire in Texas’ history.
The Smokehouse Creek Fire began on Feb. 26 just outside of Stinnett, TX, and was among several wind-driven fires with undetermined official causes. Warm temperatures and windy conditions in Texas facilitated the fires’ spread, and within 24 hours, they had engulfed over 500,000 acres of land.
As of March 12, the fire was reported to be 90% contained, according to InciWeb, an emergency information system provided by the U.S. Forest Service.
Running P Cattle
Drew Perez is one of the many ranchers who endured the devastation of the Smokehouse Creek Fire.
Around five years ago, Drew and his wife, Lauren, branched out from the family operation to establis htheir own enterprise from the ground up outside Canyon, TX. Drew grew up on a commercial and purebred Hereford operation while Lauren was raised on a diversified farm. A common passion for livestock judging united the pair in college. Now, Drew and Lauren have a daughter, Mila, and a son, Myles, and operate Running P Cattle Co.
Drew and Lauren started their ranch with a small herd of 10 head and expanded Running P to about 10 times its original size before the fire struck.
“This calf crop was the year we were excited for. We felt it was finally going to be the year the world could see the genetics that we could put together. We had high hopes that in 2025 we could highlight these calves in an inaugural live bull sale,” Drew told WLJ. “We’ve worked so hard to get there, and this year was going be the year that we actually had some numbers and some volume to take that next step—to take this from being a sideline deal to more of a full purebred operation.”
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The ranch had reached a stage where it felt nationally recognized, Drew continued. Running P was coming off victories earlier this year in Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, where they won the Supreme Top 5 and Champion Hereford Bull at Cattlemen’s Congress, and the Reserve Champion Hereford Bull at the Fort Worth Stock Show. Drew and Lauren had put in 50 embryos last year and many of the ranch’s cows were AI’d to the champion bull, set to calve on the day the fire hit.
“We had newborn embryo calves that were born on top of ash,” Drew said. “It was mind blowing to see some of those calves. I don’t know how they made it.”
While not all the newborn calves survived, Drew said two were miraculously untouched by the fire. One calf was found in a 2-foot square of green grass, surrounded by miles of burnt pasture.
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“We are trying to look at as many positives as we can and focus our future around the few that did survive,” Drew said, “and we did have some cattle that made it.”
Fire strikes
The day before the fire struck where the ranch keeps cattle near Canadian, TX, the fire was still about an hour-and-half drive away. Drew said they knew the fire was close, but at that point, didn’t think they were at risk of being in the fire’s path. The following morning, the wind was roaring and that’s when Drew’s concern grew. They headed north to Canadian, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Canyon, to assess the situation and were confronted with the magnitude of the fire.
After stopping to talk with a firefighter on scene in Canadian, Drew learned the wind was set to change direction several hours earlier than anticipated, and within 30 minutes there was going to be “a fire 80 miles wide coming right at you.”
“And he was right,” Drew said. “The wind did switch early.”
At that moment in time, a feeling of helplessness took over, Drew said. It was too late to do much, but he headed out into the pastures and tried to find the best area for cattle to hunker down. He called cows onto natural gas station leach pads in one pasture and left cows in another pasture bedded down in a big dirt pond.
He considered cutting fences to let cattle out, but ultimately decided against it.
“What do you do if one gets on the highway and a family of four is trying to beat that fire out of there, and they run into that cow on the road?” he asked. “That kind of stuff wasn’t worth it. And there wasn’t anywhere for them to go, either.”
The following morning, they went back to check pastures. The cows in the pasture with the pond, the recips and Angus cows, fared the best, while the registered Herefords in another pasture weren’t as lucky. The majority of Herefords were lost to the fire, and Drew estimates nearly half of the ranch’s herd was killed in total.
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“It’s sickening to drive through,” Drew said. “We had to put several of them down that were down and burnt. It was the hardest thing I have had to do in my life. Many of these were the foundation females of our operation that got us to where we were.”
When they were finally able to go back into Canadian and haul cattle out to Canyon, there was another 10 head that had to be put down due to severe burns and injury. The surviving cattle are being nursed back to health, being ran through the chute every day to doctor burnt eyes, feet and udders.
“We are trying to hold together what we can,” Drew said.
The entire county is scorched, with not a single blade of grass in sight, he said. Ranchers were told at a Farm Service Agency meeting shortly after the fire that Hemphill County was 87% burnt land. Adjacent counties fared the same. Early reports estimate breeding females lost total over 15,000 head.
“We’re fortunate, really, if you look back on it,” Drew said. “A lot of people lost 400, 500 head in the fire.”
Resilience and community
Throughout the fire and the aftereffects, Drew said the community support has been tremendous. “You go through something like that, it’s very humbling to see just how many people care and how many true friends you have,” he said. “We’ve been blown away by the support, the phone calls and texts, and people dropping whatever they have to come and help.”
People have driven eight, 10 hours to deliver hay and feed, and some just showed up to be there for them, Drew said.
“It’s truly amazing to see how this industry rallies and supports and cares for peers,” he said. “It lets you know you’re in the right spot.”
For those wanting to donate time or resources to ranchers affected by the Texas wildfires, there are ongoing efforts collecting hay and feed donations, along with monetary donations.
For general information about donations or relief efforts, those interested may contact Texas A&M AgriLife Extension at 806-354-5800. The Texas Cattle Feeders Association also has donation resources available at its website, tcfa.org. Several funds have been set up for donations.
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Scorched land will need to rest at least through the summer, probably closer to the end of fall, Drew said. While many ranchers have most needs met sufficiently right now, those holding onto their cows are going to face a long-term battle of feeding hay until the land heals.
Despite the setbacks and the long path to recovery, he speaks of resilience and optimism. “Tough times present themselves, but tough people come out of it and come back stronger,” Drew said. “As long as you have your health and people are still alive, then we can rebuild cow herds and the grass will grow back in. We can rebuild fences. I think we were just very fortunate that a fire of that magnitude didn’t take more lives or more people’s homes.” — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
