Just out of hospital, Montague woman died fighting fire

BY BILL MILLER

wmiller@star-telegram.com

The week already had been stressful enough.

Carrie Miller, 53, of Bowie was checked into a Wichita Falls hospital on Sunday, April 5, fearing a heart attack, said her daughter, Kristy Jackson of Garland.

The following Wednesday, Miller returned with her husband, Gary, to the Montague County cattle ranch where they were caretakers.

Then wildfires swept the county on Thursday, and although the couple kept flames back, Carrie Miller collapsed and was rushed to a hospital where she died.

Justice of the Peace Jim Willard said Monday that he had not yet received the official medical examiner’s findings, but an initial report indicated that she died of a heart attack.

The “Montague County Complex Fire” also killed Matt Quinn, a former reporter for WFAA/Channel 8, and his wife, Cathy, when flames covered their property in a rural area between Stoneburg and Montague.

Willard said he was told that the Quinns’ location was a short distance from the property where Carrie and Gary Miller were caretakers.

By Monday that fire had burned an estimated 65,000 acres and it was only 50 percent contained, said Bill Beebe, spokesman at the Texas Forest Service office in Granbury.

It was one of 18 Texas grass fires still burning on Monday, despite heavy rains over the weekend in North Texas. An estimated 144,000 acres have been charred statewide since April 6, Beebe said.

Jackson on Monday said she called her mother Thursday evening but her stepfather answered the phone.

“They got the fires out in the yard,” Jackson said, “but then my stepfather noticed my mother collapsed.”

As Gary Miller tried to revive his wife, Jackson hung up and called 911, but the call went to the local emergency dispatch center in Garland.

“I said, ‘I don’t even know if this is the right number’ and I hung up,” she said. “But they called me back.”

A 911 operator in Garland got information from Jackson and moments later, a Montague County Sheriff’s dispatcher was calling her to learn her mother’s location.

By that time, however, an ambulance crew in the area had heard her stepfather’s calls for help. The crew took Jackson’s mother to a hospital in Nocona where she was pronounced dead.

Jackson said her mother had been diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure, but her family was unprepared for her death. A fund has been established at a Capital One Bank branch in Garland to help pay for funeral costs. For information, call Phillip Mora, relationship banker, at 972-364-6000, option 6.

Several new fires were reported Sunday, although some of them were fewer than 100 acres in size and one amounted to only three acres, Beebe said.

Willard noted, however, that the weekend rains dramatically restricted the fire’s growth in Montague County.

“Thank goodness for 2 inches of rain,” he said. “If it is still burning some place, it’s only slowly smoking.”

Firefighters hoped the Montague fire will be completely contained in the next few days so that it doesn’t spread further, Beebe said. More rain is in the forecast toward the end of the week, and officials hope that helps.

There is a 40 percent chance for showers on Thursday and 50 percent chance Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

BILL MILLER, 817-390-7684

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