Generations of family history lost when Chalk Mountain Fire sweeps through Texas homestead
Suzanne and Ralph Brown lost generations’ worth of family history this week. Flames from the Chalk Mountain Fire stole it from them.
Heirlooms, family photos and property that had been in Ralph Brown’s family since the late 1950s were all decimated by the blaze when it swept through the land near Glen Rose they shared with four of Ralph Brown’s siblings and one of their children.
The family has managed to stay in good spirits, Suzanne Brown said, but it hasn’t been easy. While they haven’t had the opportunity to go and really survey the damage, they know what has been destroyed by fire. They know what they need to do to start over.
“We’ll just, you know, kick it in gear,” Brown said. “‘Cause, hey, we’re Texans. We’re going to make this work.”
Texas A&M Forest Service, which is assisting local authorities, started its response to the Chalk Mountain Fire outside of Glen Rose in Somervell County on Monday, when the fire was burning about a thousand acres. That number almost tripled overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the fire was an estimated 6,339 acres and 10% contained. The forest service was using bulldozers and aviation to fight the fire Wednesday, focusing on west edge of the fire.
The Chalk Mountain Fire had burned almost 10 square miles of mostly short grass, brush and juniper as of midday Wednesday, the Texas A&M Forest Service told the Associated Press. Sixteen homes were destroyed and five others were damaged, said spokeswoman Alexandra Schwier.
Four of those 16 homes were on the Browns’ property. One home, belonging to one of Ralph Brown’s sisters, somehow survived.
Now Suzanne and Ralph Brown are staying with friends. They count themselves lucky. Other people who have been affected might not have family or friends in the area they can stay with, Suzanne Brown said. And support from the community has kept them going.
They’ve received help from churches and other organizations in the area, like the LDL Foundation, which gave them $500 to start replacing what was lost in their closets.
During the evacuation Suzanne Brown grabbed one set of clothes for herself and a couple of pairs of jeans for her husband. They’d already packed up medicines and a few other things before the flames started attacking their property because of an advisory to evacuate, but they never really thought it would come to that.
Brown said she’d seen another fire, years ago, that they were warned would put them in danger there. It didn’t, and she thought this would be the same situation.
When around 6:30 p.m. the family did evacuate, Brown said, she’s pretty sure they were the last ones to leave the area.
They went back at one point after most of the fire had been doused and saw the destruction, but they haven’t had the opportunity to see if anything in the homes managed to survive.
Brown said she’s sure a lot of the antique heirlooms passed down from her grandmother to mother to her, which she planned on passing down to other family members later, are gone. That’s probably the hardest part, she said. She tears up a little talking about it. Other things can be rebuilt or re-purchased.
“I was the antiquer of the bunch, so I ended up with a lot of my grandmother’s things, mom’s things. A lot of those things you just can’t get back. I’ll just have the thought of, ‘I want to go and get it, but oh, I can’t get that. It’s just gone.’“
They know enough, though, to know what they need to do next. She thinks a lot of the photographs can be replaced, provided other family members have copies. And the houses can be replaced.
“You always think, ‘OK, you’re gonna wake up and this isn’t true, but it is. It’s a new reality,” she said. “But we’ll make it.”