When the towering black plume first sprouted on the western horizon, it wasn’t much cause for alarm. The sky in the northeastern Panhandle is near-boundless, and from his Hemphill County ranch Adam Isaacs often spotted smoke from fires that were a hundred miles away. Few of them ever threatened his property. This one, he knew, had gotten started roughly seventy miles west, and though the winds were blowing his way, the flames had a lot of ground to cover before Adam would allow himself to get concerned. His land, his livestock, his loved ones—none were at risk. Not right away. But the potential was there.That Monday morning, February 26, had brought one of the 2024 fire season’s first red flag warnings, an alert the National…
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