Youth in rural America come prepared with a different skill set than your average students. Helping out in their community is in their blood, and they’re used to working hard to preserve their family’s future, whether that be in planted acreage or livestock. But nothing could have prepared farmers, ranchers, and members of the Canadian FFA for what the blazes that started on February 26, 2024, in the Texas Panhandle would soon become.
Brandon Meier, a native of Darrouzett, Texas, grew up tending to cattle and cultivating wheat, corn, and milo. His academic journey naturally led him to a plant and soil sciences degree and then his volunteer fire chief role in Darrouzett. However, when he was offered a position at the high school, his career took a turn that he never anticipated. Along with many other agriculture teachers, he has found himself imparting real-life, hands-on experiences to his students for the past eight years, a role reversal that has proven challenging and rewarding.
So, it was not unusual for Meier to dial his students into current events through the live-streamed radio station when news of a fire came from Jack Craft, the FFA chapter’s president and a volunteer fire fighter for a neighboring town. On Monday, the Grapevine fire had started south of Pampa and was headed eastward. Meanwhile, the Smokehouse Creek Fire had ignited in nearby Stinnett.
“We listened to it all day because it was blowing in this direction,” said Meier. I told the kids that we needed to look forward and plan.”
When the fire got close to Miami, Craft went out to fight the fire as it reached Roberts County. The fire was stopped, but by Tuesday, Meier looked at the weather and saw what direction high winds would blow the next day.
“I drew a line straight from where that fire was. And guess what town was in its direct path? Canadian,” said Meier. “All day in school again, I had the radios going again, including my fire radio, because the fire had started again, and it was fixing to jump back over the road.”
That whole morning, Meier touched base with firefighters on the scene. Then, the inevitable happened — the fire jumped U.S. Route 83, and school was canceled. Meier called into his principal as soon as his kids were out of harm’s way and headed to their homes and then jumped on a fire truck.
@bameier1 I want to personally Shout out@Jack craft it was an honor fighting this beast beside you as a Fire chief and your Ag Teacher! Your making many people proud stepping up like this and helping! Doing the job not many step up to VOLUNTEER and do! #firefighter #2024wildfire #wildfire #teachers #student #fire #fyp #sendit #proud ♬ original sound – CFB_Daily
Moisture during the summertime and lands designed as Conservation Reserve Program acres meant plenty of forage and fuel bank to help feed fires. That, combined with the added high winds, made for a fast-moving, hot-burning fire.
“At that time, the head of the fire had reached the Canadian Feed Yard,” explained Meir. But, it didn’t take long for him and his crew to realize that they weren’t going to beat the fire fighting this way.
“We were surrounded by flames, and we realized that we had to change our strategy, because this wasn’t an offensive fire. We were putting a bandaid on a bullet hole,” said Meier. “I told my guys that we had to get to Glazier.”
The town of Glazier is a small, unincorporated community in Hemphill County, Texas. Just a short 11-minute drive from Canada, Meier says there are about 40 houses in the community. Firefighters, including those on Meier’s crew, were able to save them all, even amidst 50 to 60-mile-per-hour winds.
All in all, the Smokehouse Creek Fire ended up burning an estimated 1,058,482 acres in Texas and Oklahoma, killing over 7,000 head of cattle. After being started by broken power poles and downed wires, the fire was finally contained on March 16, becoming the second-largest fire in U.S. history.
In the midst of the blaze, what couldn’t be saved was Canadian FFA’s barn. Meier explains that while the program’s buffalo (who now lives at his house), a wooden shack, and many other school buildings were left standing, much of the agriculture program’s welding supplies, metal barns, show barn, and other supplies were destroyed during the fire.
@bameier1 Due to the wildfires in the Panhandle the Canadian FFA has lost our FFA Ag farm. Big thanks to the fire depts for all they have done! #ffa #ag #farm #wildfire #texas #school #smokehousecreekfire #2024wildfires #fyp #firetruck ♬ Sad Music – Max-Music
“We didn’t have the best facilities out there. But we had any tool, any item you could think of related to stock shows. Thousands of dollars of equipment and tools were in our barn that burned down,” said Meier. I can’t even tell you how much it will cost to replace the supplies and the new barn.”
Meier believes that a rabbit that caught fire and ran into the barn seeding shelter started the fire in the steer barn, while welding equipment helped heat and fuel the blaze in other areas of the land lab.
“When you’re fighting a fire, you see some pretty horrific things. Cattle walking up the street burned, you’ll see little flame balls in the grass, and those are rabbits on fire,” explained Meier. “I think one ran in there, hunkered down under the storage lockers, and caught the whole thing on fire.”
Despite the setback and loss of equipment, members of the Canadian FFA have been back to “business as usual,” or at least as usual as possible.
“A few kids missed out on the first few contests, helping local ranchers where they could. But they’re competing now. It’s important to see us pick up and keep going,” says Meiers. “Believe it or not, I had canceled the contest the day I was fighting the fire, and I had kids sad they’d missed out on the contest. It’s their job, and they wanted to do it.”
One student, whose family had lost some of their longhorn herd, showed up the first day back to school and told Mieier that she wanted to write thank you letters to every fire department that helped fight the Panhandle fires. She wrote over 100 thank you letters and sent them out that same day.
“It’s how these kids are. They’re thankful, they give back, and they show their appreciation,” Meier remarked. “I have another kid here that I was driving through some pasture with, and he asked about the number of volunteer hours he’d worked in school. He had over 100 hours of community service already.”
Canadian FFA’s ag program alongside the Panhandle has a long road to recovery. With forage burned off of the rangeland, Meier says that new grass is trying to sprout up. But, with windy days, “It’s like the Sahara desert. What grass is trying to grow is getting beat up by the sand.”
Alongside efforts to get feed and supplies to ranchers, initiatives to help the FFA program rebuild were launched last month. The Panhandle FFA Booster Club will donate the proceeds from a t-shirt created to help Canadians rebuild their program.
Ranch Raised, a Montana-based brand of ag-centric clothing, has launched a Texas line. All proceeds will be donated to the Canadian FFA.
FFA programs around Texas have stepped up to help raise funds. Walsh School District’s Annual Calf Fry to be held on April 11 plans to donate their proceeds to the Canadian FFA chapter. Motley County FFA also raised funds to help with a fundraiser barbeque.
Heidi Crnkovic, is the Associate Editor for AGDAILY. She is a New Mexico native with deep-seated roots in the Southwest and a passion for all things agriculture.
