What Will Happen to Ringgold, TX?
If you remember from the news headlines, a New Years Day grass fire hit Ringgold, TX, and destroyed most of the small town. The Houston Chronicle has a story about what the future may hold for Ringgold (via Firehouse.com).
The wildfire, which moved as a swirling wall 30 to 40 feet tall, began about five miles west of Ringgold. A sparking power line is the suspected cause.Pushed by 40-mph winds, it headed east across thigh-high fields of bluestem and other grazing grasses and straight into town. There, it took less than an hour to destroy 58 homes, 57 barns and storage sheds and six businesses along U.S. Highway 82, Badgett said.
As front-end loaders piled charred bricks, bicycles, the remains of a decorative wagon wheel and other ash-gray debris into Texas Department of Transportation trucks, residents wondered what will become of their long-fading town and who, if anyone, will rebuild.
"A lot of them won't be back. This is going to be a smaller place," Stillwell said.
I live straight north of Ringgold about 700 miles as the crow flies. Small town, rural setting, on the prairie. Ringgold probably isn't much different than my hometown. It's sad to hear that this town will be a "smaller place".
I'd like to wish all the best to the remaining residents of Ringgold.
