100-year-old home on ranch near Abilene burned by wildfires

With 1 million acres of Texas land recently aflame, Rob Hailey understands his house is not the only one lost to fire. That fact doesn't provide any solace for the rancher, who lost his 100-year-old home. Three days after the structures on his 2,500-acre ranch — located about 15 miles north of Abilene — burned to the ground, Hailey walked the property between the remains of the home and what used to be a foreman's house for the first time since the fire, ash still warm underfoot. "It's horrendous," he said, stepping carefully over charred branches. "People always say they wish these walls could talk. Now there's no chance of that." Standing on the broken-rock sidewalk leading to the space that used to be the home's front door, he recalled the inscription on the inside of the wooden barn built by his grandfather Dennis Price Manly. It read "DPM 1917."...more