Bastrop Labor Day Fire: One Year Later

Belinda Williams was preparing to go to bed in her beautiful Texas limestone house embedded in the lost pines of Bastrop when she looked out her window and saw a huge orange glow. She woke her husband and told him they better leave.

It was Sept. 4, 2011, and a fire fueled by high winds, high temperatures and drought-like conditions erupted in the pine forests east of Bastrop. The result was more than 1,600 homes lost, two people killed and 34,000 acres charred.

Belinda and her husband, the Rev. C.A. Williams, had left behind a 7,200 square foot home that had hosted family reunions, church gatherings and Halloween parties. The fire left the home in ashes. Also consumed were a car, a truck, a barn and everything the Williams owned.

With the fire approaching, the Williams knew they needed to get out quickly. “I stood in the kitchen wondering what I should take. Should I get my jewelry or my family pictures? What if we come back and it’s gone?” Belinda said.

They wound up not taking anything. She said she still doesn’t know what she would have taken. They decided they had each other and they would not separate, so they left in one vehicle.

After spending the first two nights of the fire in their car, the Williams found one last room available in a Bastrop motel where they spent the next six weeks. Fortunately, the Williams had insurance, which provided them additional living expenses within 48 hours of the fire. It has allowed them to rebuild where the old home once stood.

Belinda said the adjuster from her insurance company, Hochheim Prairie, was very supportive and helpful through the entire recovery process. She wrote to the company expressing her thanks in how professional her insurance adjuster had been.

Within six weeks of the devastating fire Hochheim Prairie had paid the Williams’ policy in full for both the dwelling and contents of the home, as well as continuing to pay the family for the loss of use of their home while they rebuilt.

Belinda said they have never thought of living anywhere else.

“Absolutely, not! We went back there and never saw it as ugly. It was beautiful. It was now cleared out and we could see all the way over the street. And we weren’t sad, we’re happy,” Belinda said. “We could have been going to a funeral.”

The Whitts

John and Lisa Whitt’s home, too, was reduced to ashes in the Bastrop Labor Day fire. With 15 minutes to get everything they could, John grabbed two pedal steel guitars and amplifiers, while his wife Lisa and daughter Crystal grabbed baby pictures, important papers and a cat.

The family drove to a motel in San Marcos. There, John got the first call from his insurance agent, Penny Glass of Texas Farm Bureau, asking if they were okay. As a new agent it would be Glass’ first total loss claim. It would be the first of many calls that Glass would make to the family.

Within hours of the fire, Texas Farm Bureau was making arrangements to get emergency cash to the Whitts to take care of out of pocket expenses. “We could not have asked for any better service,” John Whitt said.

The Whitts lived on the east side of Tahitian Village that was hardest hit by what would become the costliest wildfire in Texas history. It would be 11 days before John would get the opportunity to see his home. His insurance adjuster, Joe Long of the Texas Farm Bureau, went with him.

Whitt rummaged through what remained of his home while Long took photographs. Later that afternoon, Long handed the Whitts checks for both their dwelling and content loss.

The Whitts are receiving additional living expense checks while their new home is being built at the original site. They plan to move in to their new home shortly after Labor Day.

“The Texas Farm Bureau has treated us like kings and we had only been with them a short time,” said Whitt. “They said they were not going to make this any harder on us than it already was and they did exactly what they said.”