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Batesville cotton gin burning

4,024 Views | 26 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by CE Lounge Lizzard
GottaRide
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6:04p, 1/28/20
S
Terrible images coming out of Batesville and a lot of farmers are going to be hurt over this. The gin got started late this year so they are running behind as it is, with farmers waiting to get paid after a good cotton year. I was told that earlier today the wind was so bad and the fire was so big that they were just hoping to save the town. There are still a lot of cotton bales on the fields around Uvalde that were waiting to get picked up. No idea when that will happen now or where they will have to go.

On my phone or I would post some pictures, but they are easy to find.
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CE Lounge Lizzard
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6:20p, 1/28/20
AG
Dang, that's not good. There are some good folks who use that gin.
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agfan2013
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6:25p, 1/28/20
AG
Heard about it this afternoon. Started as a smoldering bale that they were watching and did move farther out, but the wind shifted and it took from there, or so I was told.

Gin should have all the right insurance so the farmers won't be out anything, although it will likely take a lot longer to get their money for the crop. Heard there were are a few 3000+ bale kind of guys that didn't have a single bale ginned yet and was all still sitting on the yard.....
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TacosaurusRex
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6:45p, 1/28/20
"If you are reading this, I have passed on from this world — not as big a deal for you as it was for me."
T. Boone Pickens
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agneck
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7:12p, 1/28/20
This same gin burned down around 1992. The smoke got so bad I couldn't see out of my deer stand on the Mary Nan West ranch 14 miles away. Had to sit on the ground in a brush blind.
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Centerpole90
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In reply to agfan2013 • 9:18a, 1/29/20
AG
Anyone on our 'family' have cotton still on the yard there?
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CanyonAg77
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10:33a, 1/29/20
AG
Crap. Is it usual to still be ginning this late in the Valley? Most Panhandle gins start a lot later and are usually done by now. 2018 was an exception, there was cotton in the yards until well into February

I've always been told cotton is almost impossible to stop burning, as the hollow fibers provide oxygen.

Dad worked in gins in the Big Springs area in the late 40s. I don't know if they were steam powered, or gas powered, but they had huge concrete open water tanks to supply the engines.

If they got a fire anywhere in the gin, they kept ginning and "baled up the fire". They then threw that burning bale into the water tank...

...where it would continue to burn, under water.
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agfan2013
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In reply to Centerpole90 • 12:18p, 1/29/20
AG
Unfortunately yes. Two different outfits and over 2000 bales between the two of them lost.

Number we heard today was approximately 1000 square modules still needed to be ginned.

Bossman was already headed to the area anyways this week, so he's on the way there today and will be stopping by to see them.
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Mule_lx
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In reply to agneck • 12:45p, 1/29/20
AG
Agneck,

I read 1932 the first time. I was wondering how old you were.
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agenjake
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In reply to CanyonAg77 • 1:07p, 1/29/20
This is a layman's perspective and not a cotton farmer's. It isn't unusual for that gin to be running through all of deer season, but I did notice a couple weeks ago that there seemed to be more cotton left to gin than usual this year.

Cotton farmers, feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

Also, that's South Texas, but not The Valley.
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Dirty-8-thirty Ag
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In reply to agenjake • 1:23p, 1/29/20
AG
The area is called the Winter Garden, isn't it?
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CE Lounge Lizzard
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In reply to Dirty-8-thirty Ag • 1:23p, 1/29/20
AG
It is.
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Dirty-8-thirty Ag
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In reply to CE Lounge Lizzard • 1:24p, 1/29/20
AG
I was about to say, I wouldn't really consider it the Valley.
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carl spacklers hat
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1:32p, 1/29/20
PSA: The Rio Grande Valley, aka the Valley, is the 4 county region in the southern tip of Texas, including Cameron, Willacy, Hidalgo and Starr Counties. Uvalde and Batesville are nowhere near the Valley.

Regarding the OP, that sucks, bigtime. Farmers have a tough enough go of it, seeing a bumper crop burn on the ground has to hurt, whether it is insured or not.
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CE Lounge Lizzard
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In reply to Dirty-8-thirty Ag • 1:41p, 1/29/20
AG
Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:
I was about to say, I wouldn't really consider it the Valley.
It's most definitely not the Valley. It is in Zavala County which has a long and infamous history, and was referred to by Gov. Briscoe at one time as "little Cuba" due to some of the radical internal county politics there.
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agenjake
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In reply to CE Lounge Lizzard • 1:47p, 1/29/20
Sounds about right. Fun fact, my great-great-grandfather (I think) bought his place down there so that if things got bad he could hop on his horse and be in Mexico in 2 days.
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agenjake
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1:48p, 1/29/20
I couldn't tell from the story. Did they lose the gin itself, or just the bales in the field?
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Canyon99
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2:34p, 1/29/20
AG
Hate to see this happen and hope all of the gin hands are safe.
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GottaRide
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3:16p, 1/29/20
S
I'm hearing today that the gin did not burn but a lot of bales were lost.

The Castro twin's mother was heavily involved with the reason Briscoe named it what he did.
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agenjake
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7:52a, 1/30/20
$6 million in losses, per KSAT. No injuries, thank God.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2020/01/30/firefighters-keep-watch-on-remnants-of-massive-cotton-gin-fire/
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Kenneth_2003
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8:26a, 1/30/20
AG
Gin in Sinton had a fire earlier this week as well...

Bunch of my friends from my former dept responded to assist in fighting the fire.
Sinton's Hartzendorf Gin was on fire
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LEJ
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In reply to GottaRide • 8:27a, 1/30/20
Expound please.
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txaggie_06
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8:31a, 1/30/20
AG
I checked on family that lives there, they are all fine. The smoke was really bad in the area and they were sending people into Uvalde that needed to get out of the area. I haven't heard about the actual loss of what happened with the gin.
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CanyonAg77
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In reply to Dirty-8-thirty Ag • 8:57a, 1/30/20
AG
Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:
I was about to say, I wouldn't really consider it the Valley.
Sorry, to those of us up here on the DEW Line, anything within an hour of the Rio Grande is "Valley".
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CE Lounge Lizzard
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In reply to LEJ • 9:03a, 1/30/20
AG
LEJ said:
Expound please.
I believe the poster is referring to the mother of Joaquin and Julian Castro, Rosie Castro. She was heavily involved with the La Raza Unida Party and other activist groups back in the day. Once the RUP was firmly ensconced and in power they helped turn Crystal City and Zavala County as a whole into what it is today. The story also involves gringos being the minority yet pretty much being in most elected offices and the RUP voted them out and themselves in. That's the 140 character brief rundown as far as I can remember.
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CE Lounge Lizzard
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In reply to CanyonAg77 • 9:05a, 1/30/20
AG
CanyonAg77 said:
Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:
I was about to say, I wouldn't really consider it the Valley.
Sorry, to those of us up here on the DEW Line, anything within an hour of the Rio Grande is "Valley".
No worries, for those of us here in south Texas, anything north of IH 10 is basically Canada.
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Centerpole90
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In reply to CanyonAg77 • 9:06a, 1/30/20
AG
CanyonAg77 said:
Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:
I was about to say, I wouldn't really consider it the Valley.
Sorry, to those of us up here on the DEW Line, anything within an hour of the Rio Grande is "Valley".
That's okay Canyon, all my life I've been told we are technically a delta, not a valley, but the "Magic Delta" doesn't look as good on postcards.

Military Science 101 landnav my fish year is as much technical geography as I've had though - so that may be BS.
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CE Lounge Lizzard
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In reply to CE Lounge Lizzard • 9:15a, 1/30/20
AG
NM
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