Our Tribute To Those Who Serve Texas

There are stories we never want to tell but find ourselves telling again and again.

Tales of swirling flash floods spinning cars off roads. Of red-hot flames jumping from branches onto roofs. Of river water, blackened on a moonless night, rising faster than anyone ever imagined.

But like these unexpected circumstances, the unexpected devotion and valiant service of first responders — police officers, firefighters, and paramedics — who bravely help others surprise us as well. Often, they give these stories happy endings. Always, they astound us with their selflessness and courage.

As spring approaches, with the threat of gully washers, tornadoes, and more, we tip our cowboy hats to the people who stand guard and come to our rescue.

Fighting Fire

It wasn’t until midnight that Texas Farm Bureau member David Mohr started to feel a little panicky. The local sheriff was pounding on Mohr’s front door to announce evacuation due to a wildfire. The blaze had crackled and smoked in the Bastrop area throughout the dry October day in 2015. It didn’t appear to pose a real threat until that night, when the wind shifted. “That was the game changer,” he says.

Earlier, around lunchtime, neighbors noticed distant smoke. With a 2-year-old granddaughter napping in their house, Mohr and his wife, Sandra, thought about the key things they would take with them if the fire approached. They had survived the devastating Bastrop wildfire of 2011 and knew what precautions to take, but nothing pointed to an ensuing disaster.

Sandra drove their granddaughter home, several hours away. Mohr listened to the radio for news of the fire and picked up the couple’s 13-year-old daughter, Margaret, from school as usual. But then came that knock on the door.

The Mohrs headed to the safety of a friend’s guesthouse, while volunteer firefighters and professional crews waged war against the blaze for the next 11 days. The family ate meals and swapped stories with other evacuees at the local recreation center. “For people in the eye of the storm, the thing you want so much is information,” Mohr explains.

First responders — from Bluebonnet Electric crews to volunteer firefighters — gathered as much detail as they could about the fire’s progress. “They were our eyes and ears behind the fire line,” Mohr says. “They wouldn’t let us in there, and for good reason.”

Sadly, the Mohrs’ home was a total loss, one of 64 houses consumed by what came to be called the Hidden Pines Fire. The Mohrs personally know a couple of the volunteer firefighters who battled the blaze and say their friends and all of the first responders did their jobs to the best of their abilities. “I have nothing but praise for these guys,” Mohr says. “A wildfire is just that: It’s wild.”

The Mohrs feel such gratitude for the workers and volunteers who tried to save the area’s houses, trees, landscape, and — most important — lives. “I would salute them anytime, anyplace,” Sandra says.

Standing Guard

Another first responder served as eyes and ears during a different disaster — the Wimberley flood during Memorial Day weekend in 2015.

That night, Texas Farm Bureau member Wesley Lambert gathered with his buddies at the Blanco River to watch a rainstorm roll in. It was harmless fun and fellowship. The kind of thing folks do in Wimberley on a long holiday weekend.

Lambert, a married father and educator at Wimberley High School, didn’t imagine his house — up the river a ways — would be in danger. But soon cell phones started ringing. The river was rising, fast.

The group raced back to Lambert’s house, grabbed a few important papers, and soon evacuated. “They knew [that] stuff wasn’t worth their lives,” says Cathy Montgomery, director of operations at Wimberley’s Emergency Medical Services. She’d come to Lambert’s property to try to gain access to his neighbors, an older couple trapped by water in their home.

Montgomery gave Lambert her cell phone number, promising to feed him information as she stood sentinel alone, awaiting assistance with the neighbors’ rescue. She remembers an eerie scene as the river inched closer: “It was so loud, and so many things were cracking and popping. It was so dark, I could only see when the lightning flashed, and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. There’s a river here, and it’s not supposed to be here.’”

By text, she stayed in touch with Lambert and let him know when water reached his home.

“I’ve told her thank you so many times,” says Lambert, who sometimes runs into Montgomery around town. Just knowing she was there helped ease his family’s anxiety that night. Montgomery still has the text on her phone from the wee hours of the morning when she let Lambert know his neighbors were rescued at last.

The next day, she and her boss stopped by to check on Lambert’s mud-raked property and encountered more first responders — Lambert’s friends, already there to help take stock of the damage.

The Lambert family lost many possessions in the flood, but they still have a wedding photo that Montgomery suggested Lambert take when he had rushed in to save a few things. “That’s not something a guy might think to take,” she says. “But I thought his wife might want it.” Another reason she’s a hero.

Thanking First Responders

Texas Farm Bureau Insurance often shows appreciation to first responders with donations to volunteer fire departments across the state. Last fall, Agency Manager Ricky Martin hand-delivered a check in Taylor County to groups that battled a fire at a 1909 bungalow outside of Abilene.

Four volunteer fire departments — from the communities of Lawn, Moro, Buffalo Gap, and Jim Ned — tried to save the Ovalo home, which had been lovingly restored by Texas Farm Bureau members Elizabeth Fry and her husband, Keith. “[The house] represented a lot of blood, sweat, and tears,” she says.

Though the house didn’t survive, Fry witnessed heroic efforts to save it. “We are very grateful there were so many volunteer firefighters there,” she says.

Living in a small community, Fry may one day brush shoulders with these brave volunteers — unassuming and unnamed heroes, always ready to answer duty’s call.