From the Ashes

It ended quietly on a Sunday afternoon. Shortly before the afternoon restoration status meeting on Aug. 30, United Cooperative Services’ last member was re-energized after losing power from the Ross Fire days before. 

That morning, United’s high-speed internet had returned to normal operations. Tired voices were elated that the multi-day outage had concluded and the last of the 300-plus meters that had been stricken without electricity and 100 members without internet were now restored.

“This fire definitely brought back not-so-happy memories of the Possum Kingdom fires of April 2011,” said United CEO Cameron Smallwood. “And while this fire caused significant damage to our system this time, what truly inspired me was the response of our employee group. The emergency response training of United’s team continuously showed throughout this event despite a constantly changing landscape. Everyone involved did their part to ensure a swift response and a timely resolution to get all of our affected members restored safely with no accidents.”

The Ross Fire started on Monday, Aug. 24, and caused issues in United’s service territory for seven days. Originating off Texas Highway 180 about three miles southwest of the town of Palo Pinto, the fire began about 1:30 p.m. Aug. 24 and headed north, burning through thickets of cedar and mesquite and racing across grasslands. 

Surpassing 90,000 acres, it now stands as the second-largest fire in the area, according to the U.S. National Weather Service in Fort Worth. It exceeded the 2022 Eastland Complex Fire, which burned more than 54,500 acres. The 2011 Possum Kingdom Lake Fire remains the largest, at 126,700 acres.

Ben Perry, United’s district foreman for Possum Kingdom Lake, said one of United’s devices was damaged by the start of the fire on Monday. When United crews responded to make repairs, multiple firefighting organizations were on scene battling the flames.

“The United device only affected 13 meters, and the fire was pretty well established in one little area when we arrived,” he said. “There seemed to be a lot of fire support, and there was a helicopter dropping water. So, it was kind of one of those active scenes where you thought, ‘Well, they’ll be able to get a handle on this.’ We were able to get in there, find our problem, get it fixed and get it back on that night. But the fire just never did slow down. It kept growing and growing. Once it got up out of the little canyon that it was in, it just took off.”  

However, fire crews weren’t successful in dousing the flames. Perry said he came back to the area in his work truck around 8 p.m. and knew that United crews would soon have to respond to an emergency restoration situation. 

“It had grown to the point then that they were starting to evacuate people in front of it, and that meant they were no longer able to control the front,” he said. “It was barreling toward our territory, toward homes, toward businesses. Whenever you start hearing people being told to evacuate and pack what you need and get ready to move, it gets pretty real, pretty quick.”

For a time, Perry said he wasn’t sure if he’d have to evacuate his own family. After the fire danger passed his property, he worked through the territory where he could, removing line that had melted down in the road and cutting low-hanging line to allow emergency vehicles to pass. As he did, Perry remembered seeing the bright red glow of the fire when he looked out toward Possum Kingdom Lake. 

That Tuesday morning, Meridian District Foreman Josh Koopmann happened to be in Cleburne having maintenance done on his truck when he heard how much the wildfire had grown overnight and the damage it had inflicted on the area.

“I said, ‘Hey, I’m headed up there to help,’” he said. “When I got there, Ben was on the phone with this, that and the other. It probably took 30 minutes for me to talk to him because he was on the phone so much. I pretty much had a plan saying, ‘Alright, this is what’s going to happen. You are going to take all other calls. I’m going to coordinate all our crews and be the contact point for that just to take some off your plate.’ And it just kind of went from there. We ran with it, and it worked well.  

“He might not have even wanted my help, to be honest. But he got it. I wasn’t taking ‘No’ for an answer.”

Crews showed up early and worked tirelessly Tuesday and Wednesday as southerly winds fanned the fire north, ultimately torching almost 48,000 acres (about 76 square miles) of land inside United’s service territory. 

As it went, it burned more than 325 poles with it and burned as yet uncounted miles of line. The fire spread into Jack County and still burned as of press time.

Patrick Fuller, United’s internet outside plant manager, said that the co-op’s high-speed internet escaped extreme damage Monday and Tuesday. Members who experienced internet issues did so mainly because of electrical outages. However, as fires flared up again between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, they damaged a major portion of the main trunk line, bringing down about 100 internet subscribers in and around the town of Graford.

Crews spent Wednesday afternoon rerunning fiber, Fuller said, and connectivity was restored to Graford Thursday morning.  The Internet team continued working until all high-speed internet subscribers were restored Saturday afternoon.

“I think the restoration went very well, given the challenges of the terrain, the fire, the trees, and the quick pace of just trying to work as safely as possible,” Fuller said. “I think the electric crews, the internet team, and all the contractors, it was just a win. We turned a bad situation into a positive response. Personally, I think we did a pretty stand-up job.”

By Thursday, enough debris had been cleared that electric crews knew what repairs they had in front of them, Perry said. It was just a matter of getting all the pieces into place, getting the rights-of-way pushed and getting access to all the sections that needed rebuilt.

“Friday was a big day,” he said. “We got a big chunk of it done on Friday.  We knew then that with all the extra crew we had coming, we set our goal to finish on Sunday. Saturday, we got a lot of the poles set, lot of the line built, and Sunday we were able to put the finishing touches on it and get it energized.” 

Jerry Scott, United’s manager of operations, said this restoration of electric and internet services required more than all-hands-on-deck to complete. About 125 people were involved in the restoration, and that included United employees, vegetation management crews, contract crews from Scott Pole Line LLC and Johnson Communications, and mutual aid from neighboring cooperatives that included Heart of Texas Electric Cooperative and Comanche Electric Cooperative.

“This fire ran across country more than some of the others in the past,” Scott said. “We needed to have a lot more right-of-way pushed through with the bulldozers. Without those dozers, we’d still be working trying to cut our way in. Having the heavy equipment to push the rights-of-way gave us access for a quick restoration. It was just a must-have in this case, and I have to give a big kudos to the guys clearing that path for us.” 

Scott said the teamwork everyone displayed throughout the event was what really helped speed the restoration along. 

“It really just reaffirmed that we can't do this very well without all the teamwork that we had,” he said.