All hands effort underway to help ranchers devastated by Texas Panhandle wildfires

An all-hands effort is underway to help ranchers who have been devastated by historic blazes that swept the Texas Panhandle last week. 

Lee Wells, a rancher in the North Dallas area who spoke to Fox News Digital, said he felt compelled to help, having experienced a tragedy of his own.

A truck hauling feed from East Texas to the Panhandle.  (Lee Wells )

"I started watching these news reports come in last week … and then we hit a million acres of devastation. I mean, I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing," Wells said. 

Wells, whose own ranch was burned in a fire several years ago, told Fox News Digital he understood the panic, the feeling of "now what?" 

Aerial view of wildfires in Texas U.S., February 27, 2024, in this picture obtained from social media. (Patrick Ryan/via REUTERS)

Flames from the Smokehouse Creek wildfire burn across grassland south of Canadian, Texas, U.S. February 28, 2024. (REUTERS/Nick Oxford)

"And so all that just came back to me when I started watching these reports and seeing these pictures, seeing these cattle laid up against the fence. It just hit me hard," Wells said. 

Bales of hay on flatbed trucks headed for the Texas Panhandle.  (Lee Wells)

Wells took to Facebook last Friday asking for donations that would be transferred through his own 501(c)(3), leewellsofficial.com, to help the ranchers. The following day he reached out to the general manager of Northeast Texas Farmers Co-op, a grain mill in Sulphur Springs, which made a multi-purpose protein feed for horses, cows, goats, and sheep. 

Within less than a week, Wells shipped 56 tons of the multi-purpose grain out to ranchers in the Texas Panhandle. He plans to ship another 50 tons next week and another 50 tons the week after that. 

Multiple trucks carrying bales of hay are headed for the Texas Panhandle.  (Lee Wells)

"I asked the mill manager, ‘are you sure you can keep this up?’ He said, ‘you worry about finding the funds. We’ll worry about how we’re going to get this made. You just keep going," Wells said. He noted that he's spent more than a dozen hours on the phone each day coordinating the relief, and urged anyone who can donate or help to do so. 

The Rancher Navy is another de-centralized organization coordinating donations to help the ranchers. Co-founder and co-director Morgan Broome told Fox News Digital the group has trucked in nearly 40,000 bales of hay for the cattle. 

"The response from the community across the country has been unbelievable. We have three semi-trucks departing out of Kentucky, Kansas, Montana, Colorado, California, and Idaho. Almost every state in the country has been sending trucks in to donate to these ranchers," Broome said. 

Wells says he has managed to ship 50 tons of multi-purpose grain within the first week.  (Lee Wells)

She noted that the livestock that is left in the burned areas "has no access to feed or forage whatsoever and they will likely not be able to grow those fields back for another year." 

"And so those cattle need to be fed through that duration of time," she said. "So we need to keep those ranchers and those producers feeding those cattle and keeping supporting the beef industry across the country." 

STATE IN BRAZIL'S AMAZON RAINFOREST REPORTS OVER 2,000 WILDFIRES IN PAST MONTH

Officials estimate upwards of 600 structures have been destroyed in the wildfires that have burned across rural areas in Amarillo. 

Those wildfires include the Smokehouse Creek fire, which is the largest wildfire in Texas history. The fire, which has burned some 1,700 square miles and spilled into neighboring Oklahoma, was about 44% contained as of Wednesday. 

FILE: A charred vehicle sits near the ruins of a home after the property was burned by the Smokehouse Creek Fire, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, in Fritch, Texas.  (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil, File)

A Texas fire chief whose small town was among the hardest hit last week by historic blazes sweeping across the Panhandle died Tuesday while fighting a house fire, authorities said.

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Although officials have not released an official cause of the Smokehouse Creek fire, a lawsuit filed Friday alleges a downed powerline near the town of Stinnett on Feb. 26 sparked the blaze.