The Fossil Ridge High School volleyball team led its school’s effort to collect donations for victims of the wildfires in the Texas Panhandle, and the response was “huge,” according to the team’s head coach.
The idea for the donation drive was sparked by a Keller ISD parent who has relatives in the affected area and who asked if there was any way the school could help.
“I know several classes are having competitions against each other. The teachers have really stepped up. The response here at Fossil Ridge High School, as I knew it would be, has been great,” Coach Hollie Huston told Fox 4 KDFW earlier this week. “We’re hoping it will really pick up, and we can fill the buses up. And that would be a great problem to have is to not have enough room for all the stuff.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, one of the wildfires — the Smokehouse Creek fire — burned more than 1 million acres and became the biggest wildfire in the state’s history. It is currently 87% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
“Several wildfires remain active across the Texas Panhandle. The fire environment is not forecast to support an increased threat for large wildfires that are highly resistant to control through Sunday. No widespread dry or critically dry fuel is expected to be exposed to critical fire weather,” Texas A&M Forest Service said Saturday morning.
Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties.
“When you look at the damages that have occurred here it’s just gone, completely gone, nothing left but ashes on the ground,” Abbott said at a news conference in Borger, per NPR.
