A church at Possum Kingdom Lake has opened as a shelter for people evacuating the "1148 Fire." The Red Cross contacted Westlake Chapel earlier this week, but when the mandatory evacuation order was lifted, the Red Cross no longer needed a place for cots.
The church did stay open as a reception area during the day for people who did want to evacuate, needed supplies or had questions.
"If the Office of Emergency Management or the church or anybody else has information they want to put out, it's a place to make sure that information gets to the public," said the Red Cross' Brian Murnahan.
Murnahan said the number of wildfires burning in Texas now has stretched the non-profit thinner. In addition to providing shelter and supplies for evacuees, he says the Red Cross also provides water and food to firefighters.
"Just imagine what they're dealing with," Murnahan said. "They're in all that gear. They're fighting a forest fire, and it's already 105 degrees."
Wednesday afternoon, the staff at Westlake Chapel was giving out food and water.
"Things can be replaced, but people can't," said Pastor Gary Riley. "Right now, we are very thankful to God no one has lost their life."
"We watched the fire come over the top of the hill. You could just feel the heat," one man who had gone to the church for lunch said. "We knew it was coming. It was rough."
His family lives along the lake, so he said they waited to evacuate, knowing they could get into their boat and go out on the water.
"Last case scenario, we could get in the boat, but I wasn't going to leave my house unless we just absolutely had to," he said.
He said his brother called him to say he saw three planes coming to drop flame retardant.
"They helped a lot," he said. "They saved us. It was close. Ten more minutes, and we wouldn't have a house."
Riley said people have also been dropping off bottled water to hand out to residents and firefighters.
"We're sort of a drop-off spot, so people can just drop things off," Riley said. "Then we've got people running back and forth from the fire station to drop off things they need. If they don't need it, then we just store it here until they call us."
The Red Cross' Murnahan said the organization needs donations of money and manpower as it responds to so many locations at once. People can learn more here.
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