TEXAS, USA — As wildfires continue to scorch land in the Texas panhandle, some Rodeo Houston participants in northern Texas have been impacted by the blaze.
One family tells KHOU 11 that the wildfires burned up the barn where they kept their livestock show animals. Fortunately, the animals were saved.
Just a few miles outside the small town of Canadian, scorched metal and concrete are all that's left of the barn that meant so much to Macie Hansen.
“I mean that was my home outside of my home,” she said. “I spent so much time there over the years trying to build the best animals that I can.”
For the past five years, Hansen said she used the “show barn” as a place to store her supplies and house the pigs that she takes to livestock shows, including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. However, this week, as she was making her annual preparations to come to RodeoHouston, the flames from the wildfires devastating northern Texas closed in on her family’s property late Tuesday evening.
“We loaded up with everything important and went to Oklahoma," she said. "We actually didn’t know what happened until someone was able to check on the property and told us the house made it but the barn didn't."
While the barn and all her show supplies were lost, Hansen said that she was able to evacuate her show animals the day before the fire reached the property. After the fire, she explained that friends and neighbors quickly stepped in to help get her new supplies and provide a place to house her pigs.
“So many texts, donations, supplies donated, and I mean it's been amazing, little things I didn't even think that we would need,” she said.
It’s that support that now getting Hansen ready to come to Houston next week where she still hopes to show and sell her pigs.
Her mother Victoria Cook told KHOU 11 the barn fire felt like a blessing in some ways, as it showed her just how united the livestock show community is.
“Anybody who is involved in stock show knows that we all say we’re one big family,” she said. “Even people who just reached out to say, ‘we're thinking of you, we're praying for you’ -- we're just very grateful.”
In a statement on social media, RodeoHouston said it was “saddened to see so many colleagues, ranches, and livestock affected by the fires in the Texas Panhandle.” Rodeo organizers said those looking for a way to support those impacted should call Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service at (806) 354-5800.