‘Deja vu’: Clark County ranchers euthanize cattle after wildfire, recall 2017 fire losses

Rancher Greg Gardiner is counting his blessings after a wildfire Tuesday killed approximately 300 cattle — it’s a fourth of what his family lost in the 2017 Starbuck fire, the largest fire in Kansas history.

Early estimates are that the fire has burned 145,000 acres so far in Oklahoma and Kansas.

“There are places and operations that were hit harder than us and I feel bad for them, but we will do whatever we can to help everybody get back on their feet,” Gardiner said. He is in Clark County, in southwest Kansas.

The two firefighters who were injured — including one who also works for Gardiner and escaped after his truck caught fire — have both been improving in a Wichita hospital, he said. He added his family is all OK — last time his brother’s house burned down — and most of their infrastructure is still in place.

“God’s good,” he said. “We are counting blessings and thinking, ‘It is a hit, but it is not as bad as it could have been.”’

They also didn’t lose much hay, compared to losing it all last time, so they will be able to still feed their cattle with what they have.

He and many others in Clark County all felt deja vu when they saw a fire start in Beaver County, Oklahoma, which is where the fire started nine years ago.

“All that feeling is just swelling in my throat … it was hard to swallow,” veterinary Dr. Randall Spare said about getting news of a fire in Oklahoma headed toward Ashland. “Deja vu.”

Spare and his colleagues at Ashland Veterinary Center started early Wednesday helping people make the tough decision of putting down wounded cattle. Spare is also a rancher, but his cattle weren’t affected.

He estimated 1,000-plus cattle died in this fire, which the Kansas Forest Service said remained active around 2:20 p.m. Wednesday. Around 10,000 cattle were killed in Clark County during the Starbuck fire.

Spare said, while losses are not as large as the Starbuck fire, it’s all bad to anyone affected.

“Today they are more concerned about the suffering of cattle and taking care of that than their own livelihood,” he said.

Two homes and a building adjacent to one of those were damaged by the fire, a Clark County spokesperson said, adding he thought they were completely destroyed.

Gardiner said changes made since the Starbuck fire saved the loss of many more cattle. They started preparing Tuesday morning, before the fire started in Oklahoma, by moving cattle to pens and wheat fields, which are moisture-rich and were lifesaving to many people and cattle during the Starbuck fire.

They lost all 270 miles of their fences in the 2017 fire. Most of it is still upright this time, he said, after they replaced parts of the wood in their fences with metal.

“In the Starbuck fire you didn’t think this could actually happen, and now you know it can actually happen … last time you were a little bit paralyzed,” Gardiner said. “One thing about the Starbuck fire, it really brought our community together. We became more family.”

Donations are being sought to help people repair what they have lost. They can be dropped off or sent to the Stockgrower’s State Bank at 622 Main Street in Ashland. The ZIP code is 67831. Checks can be sent there and made out to the Ashland Community Foundation. People are asked to put “wildfire donation” in the memo line.