Williams employees among first responders to Smokehouse Creek fire.

Burning more than 1 million acres, the Smokehouse Creek fire was the largest ever in Texas, destroying homes, ranches and prairies as it merged with other grass fires in the Texas Panhandle and spread into western Oklahoma.

Helping to battle the recent blazes were several Williams employees who are volunteer firefighters, and Williams retiree Denise Corliss, who responded with her search and rescue dogs Finn and Rennes.

Deployed with Texas A&M Task Force 1, Corliss helped her team search the charred rubble of more than 100 homes in Hemphill County, Texas. Finn, a Golden Retriever trained in human remains detection, spent days crawling through twisted metal, heaps of ash and unstable debris in her dogged search.

Corliss said that thanks to Williams, Finn’s paws and those of the other search dogs with her group were protected from burns and injury.

“Williams provided the money for us to create ‘booty kits,’ which allow us to wrap the dogs paws in the field to keep them safe,” she said. “Since the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, we carry those kits with us whenever we deploy.” 

Williams’ donation also provided funding for the search teams to purchase first aid kits and supported training of the canines and handlers.

Supporting first responders is a key pillar of Williams’ charitable giving program. In 2023, Williams gave $525,000 to 344 first responder organizations across our footprint.

Corliss said the devastation across the Texas Panhandle was as far as she could see.

“Everywhere you looked, the fire had burned for hundreds of acres,” she said. “When we weren’t searching for victims, we were helping move cattle or load hay, whatever we could do to ease the burden of the pain for the ranchers and residents.”

Corliss, who worked as manager in Houston before retiring several years ago, has been a canine search specialist for decades, including her first deployment to the World Trade Center site after the 2001 terror attacks.

“We have a responsibility to help when we can,” she said. “It’s something I am passionate about.”

Williams operations employees Dustin Lowrance and Glenn Cushenbery also helped battle the blazes.

Lowrance, a member of the Erick, Oklahoma, volunteer fire department, was deployed across the border to protect homes and property in Wheeler County, Texas. Cushenbery, a volunteer member of the Alva, Oklahoma, fire department, helped extinguish hot spots dozens of miles away in Ellis County, Oklahoma.

Both men said that rural departments band together in times of need via task forces that coordinate multi-agency response across counties and states. This played a critical role in containing the recent fires.

“My department sent out a crew every day as part of a joint operation,” Lowrance said. “With winds gusting 65-miles and higher at times, it was a pretty intense situation.”

Cushenbery said the dust and ash created blinding conditions in an already dangerous situation. Still, he pushes aside praise for doing heroic work.

“It’s what I signed up for,” he said, adding that training is important to staying safe while protecting others.

But like his son and son-in-law, who are professional firefighters, Cushenbery is committed to helping his neighbors and surrounding communities in time of need.