As wildfire threats grow in North Texas, a family reflects on the loss of Sgt. Barbara Fenley, who died evacuating residents during the Eastland County fires three years ago. NBC 5’s Meredith Yeomans reports.
Some scars from the Eastland Complex wildfire three years ago are still visible. Others are not.
“It’s been really hard without her here,” said Jonathan Fenley.
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WATCH HEREFenley is the son of Barbara Fenley, a former police chief for the city of Gorman and a sergeant for the Eastland County Sheriff's Office during the area’s most destructive wildfire in recent memory.
“You could see the smoke from Carbon,” recalled Fenley, who remembers his last phone call with his mom.
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SIGN UP “She’s like, ‘I'm just working, I’m just doing the traffic,’ and that's what we thought had happened the whole time. We didn't realize she had been evacuating people,” said Fenley.
While evacuating people door to door, officials say they last heard from Sgt. Fenley as she went to check on a senior citizen along FM 2526 in Carbon.
With conditions deteriorating and low visibility from smoke, the Eastland County Sheriff's Office says Sgt. Fenley ran off the roadway and was engulfed by the wildfire. A cross now stands near the spot of the accident in her memory.
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The road is now named the Sgt. Barbara Fenley Memorial Highway.
But for Jon Fenley, it doesn't take a sign to take him back to that day.
“Anytime the wind’s up, I think there’s a little bit of trauma there just to make sure that, ‘Do I have everything packed? Is everything OK?’” Fenley said.
Eastland County is already under a red flag warning, and the wildfire threat is spreading east to DFW later this week.
“Just take those warnings seriously. Just check in on family and friends because you never know when something like that can randomly start,” urged Fenley.
