KNOWLES, Okla. (AP) - It is early morning and a light rain, almost not enough to even measure, has changed the smell of thousands of fire ravaged acres from smoke to the acrid scent of a wet ashtray.
For many in other areas who heard about the fires and saw snippets of photos and news stories about them, the fires were a horrible blip on the statewide radar for a few days, The Woodward News (https://bit.ly/2omjsIP ) reported. For those out of state, the devastation barely made the national news. But for those living this nightmare, the reality is experienced in its most raw form minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day.
Ranchers here say it is a mixture of fear, anxiety, sadness and anger - but who do you direct your anger at, they ask.
“And none of this will be over anytime soon,” said the father of a large Beaver County ranch Jim Hilton.
Hilton’s two sons Britt and Dillon have taken over the family ranch in Beaver County and are working the large cattle spread. Jim Hilton now spends time with his grandchildren and runs a software company in Enid.
“I just wanted to step back and let them run with it,” he said.
But over the last week and for the foreseeable future, he will be acting as the disaster manager for the Knowles area, working full-time at coordinating relief for his fellow community members.
“This is what I am doing, organizing donations and allowing these people to get back to just taking care of their ranches,” Hilton said.
On the morning of March 24, Hilton was found at his makeshift commend center, which is really just the Knowles Community Center. He is organizing numerous large scale volunteer efforts, including a veteran group, a group from the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and other youth ag and rodeo organizations coming from all over the United States. The helpers are planning to join together and help tear out burned up fencing and some will also help reinstall the new fencing.
He took a break to take the Woodward News on a tour of his fire-scarred ranch - all 39,000 acres of bare, blowing sand.
And that’s just his ranch. Drive on west of Knowles and drive all the way to Beaver. As far as the eye can see south and as far as the eye can see north on U.S. Highway 64, it is barren, blowing sand.
“I think recovery will be slow,” Hilton said.
But that recovery has indeed started with the help of literally thousands in Oklahoma as well as numerous people and businesses in many other states.
But like with large scale operations, the presence of so many volunteers and donations can produce work as well. With that in mind, Hilton began recruiting some help that would create an atmosphere that would not only set the volunteers free to just help and not pay for food and housing, but also set free local ranchers to keep working on their own ranches, instead of cooking and hosting volunteers.
“Some of these ranchers have their tractors up here at different spots to unload this massive amount of hay and then they are trying to carry on their own work load too,” Hilton said.
According to Hilton, just on his son’s ranch alone, there are over 150 miles of fencing to tear out and replace. That’s enough work to keep a rancher busy for a year.
That’s where the volunteers come in. And there are plenty of them. But where do you put them when you are miles from anything?
“The first people who will make that home for a couple days are coming in tonight,” Hilton said.
Most recently Hilton and those helping him recruited a company called Stallion Oilfield Services out of Houston. Stallion transported four portable bunk houses and set up a fully functioning man camp in Knowles.
The units sleep 12 people each and provide satellite television and full cooking facilities.
“They have heat and air and washer and dryers, so they are self-sufficient,” Hiltons said. “Clinton Ice brought an ice trailer up and Seth Wadley (Ford Dealership out of Pauls Valley) and he asked, ’what do you all need up there,’” Hilton said.
He said Tyson Foods has also chipped in and provided a refrigerated truck full of pre-cooked meats, more than 10,000 pounds of food, available to help feed the workers.
“We’ve had a group, a motel group who has supplied linens and towels for this place,” Hilton said.
Panhandle Telephone has also chipped in and set up an emergency Wi-Fi station and a cellular trailer for the man camp and others who come to help tear out and build fencing.
One of the biggest problems for locals who are trying to unload hay and keep hay to livestock has been keeping tractors that are unloading hay fueled up. There are not fuel outlets, leaving tractor owners with the task of driving all the way to Laverne or Beaver to get more fuel to keep equipment running. Those trips can account for an hour or more just driving time.
On that end Frank Oil out of Booker, Texas has set some fuel tanks and donating the first loads of fuel. That allows Hilton to recruit other fuel donations to keep things moving.
“We can divert donation checks (open donations) then to help pay for keeping some fuel here,” Hilton said. “The premise of this is to take the burden off the people here. There are not that many people here. Especially when you are dealing with donations and where do you put all the people and all the work that come with it.”
On March 25, the first crews came to Knowles. They consisted of a volunteer group out of Aspermont, Texas who will helped a Knowles rancher with fencing.
On March 31, the Marlow Baptist Church brought workers who stayed and tore down burned up fencing. And on April 1 and 2 there will be 100 volunteers from the Mennonite Bretheren Church out of Enid led by agriculture businessman Brent Kroeker.
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Information from: The Woodward News, https://www.woodwardnews.net
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