BEXAR COUNTY, Texas — Some Bexar County emergency responders have returned home after helping fight the Panhandle fires since Feb. 27.
Michael Bowers, Harry Hewlett and Gabriel Ramirez were part of Strike Team 107. Each of them worked 12-hour shifts to ensure the remnants of such a historic fire remains contained.
Right now, the Panhandle fires are close to 90% contained. When Bowers, Hewlett and Ramirez arrived at the end of February they said they were shocked.
"It's biblical...no matter what direction we looked...everything was black," Hewlett said.
Hewlett went on and said in his 38 years of being a firefighter he had never seen anything like this.
"It was beyond anything I thought I'd ever see," Ramirez said.
The only sign of life the men said they really saw while in the Panhandle, was a cow with its calf and a mule deer.
Lawrence Padalecki Sr. the Fire Chief for Bexar Co. ESD 12 said his crew were in Fritz, Amarillo, Miami and any other spot in the Panhandle they were needed at the time.
Padalecki added that his team was ready for something like this from the day they joined the team and they'll be ready again if they ever get called out to assist.
For now another team has replaced them in the Panhandle as they work to put out the last embers of the most historic fire in Texas history.
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