March is always a hard month for me. It’s been nine years since my Dad died March 1, 2017. And nine since the Scott farm burnt in the Starbuck fire, March 6, 2017—on the day of Dad’s funeral.
Although I didn’t see the flames with my own eyes on that fateful day, I’m still scarred. I didn’t fight to get cattle where they were out of harm’s way like many. We didn’t lose our home and contents, but many Clark County residents did that day. Between a couple of other fires, nearly a million acres burned in Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma in March 2017.
In the years since the Starbuck fire, there’s been many more fires. I get antsy when they’re close to home and know how those people are feeling. It hurts. It hurts to see the blackened land that looks like a foreign planet. It hurts to see the dead cattle and other wildlife. It hurts to see burned out homes or vehicles. It hurts to see people’s heritage, legacy, and livelihoods turned to ash in mere seconds.
This year, Feb. 17, was one of those days where we were warned that it could be bad. We had fire weather warnings, and high wind warnings. The only thing different from 2017 was it wasn’t 80 degrees and we didn’t have to go to a funeral.
But that morning a fire broke out near Beaver, Oklahoma. I watched on Kyle Wilson’s News 9 page as he tracked the fire on Facebook. I happened to turn the feed on as he was attempting to let cattle out a pasture gate. The other voice on the video said Kyle is a trained firefighter and knows what he’s doing. In the moment, it was comforting to know that information. I watched as humidity levels dropped into the single digits and winds blew 50 mph plus. I knew only in a matter of time it would be in Kansas. And I wasn’t wrong.
When the fire reached the U.S. Highway 160 and 283 junction just north of Englewood, Kansas, I opened my maps app and tried to see where the fire could skirt across open country and reach our Clark County farm. In the previous days my husband had moved our cows and a couple new calves to our calving pasture to finish the season, so I started to worry.
My racing mind wasn’t eased any when another storm chaser said the fire had split into two segments, one staying south of Highway 160 and the other heading northeast (pretty much the direction of the farm, but still probably 40 miles). The outlets I could find stayed mostly with the fire south of 160, and I’d hoped this meant the northern side was closer to being contained.
At this point I texted my husband and asked if the fire was going to get us again. He wasn’t sure but had plenty of eyes and ears on it and was going on about his day, watching heifers ready to calve. Me on the other hand, was doing nothing but torturing myself and trying to find out where the fire was at. By the time the boys got home from school, they’d picked up on my anxiety about the fire, and both started to worry. I did my best to calm them and gave them some jobs to do.
When I called my husband later on, he said the fire was south of the highway and won’t get us. I was still concerned and asked if he was going to go down there. He wasn’t. As blunt as he was with his, “What can I do? Watch it burn again?” I just had to drop the conversation. I guess if he wasn’t worried, I shouldn’t be either.
In the end our stuff was OK. People we know near Ashland lost some pasture, a couple trailers and some equipment. Their home was spared, and their cattle are alive. I’m grateful we managed to miss out this time around, and the fire wasn’t any worse than it was for some folks.
Folks out here on the High Plains are a hardy bunch. I know of at least one family who was hit in 2017 and again in 2026. They were given the strength to survive back then, and I have a feeling they’ll do it again. And total strangers from across the country have again restored my faith in humanity by donating hay, feed, supplies, and money to help the folks affected by the Ranger Road fire.
I gathered donation information for a story recently. Here’s that story with all the links. https://hpj.com/2026/02/20/wildfire-resources-available-following-fires-in-oklahoma-kansas-texas/.
If you’re interested in reading about my experience with the Starbuck fire, here’s the 2017 blog post I wrote the day after the fire burned the Scott farm.
