Biographical Info
Age: 62
Additional Info: McMorries owned an appraisal company in Amarillo. He was a long time rancher and once worked for a fire rescue team. He signed up as a volunteer in Howardrick because the town had only six volunteer firefighters, and McMorries wanted to help out during a January 1 wildfire that threatened the town. He continued to volunteer until he suffered injures in an apparatus roll battling the March grass fires. He was taken off life support on Saturday, and McMorries died Sunday, April 9.
Incident Details
Cause of Death: McMorries suffered collapsed lungs, a broken back, spinal cord injury, broken ribs and a serious head injury.
Date of Incident: March 12, 2006
Team4News.com
AMARILLO, Texas — Two firefighters are recovering and a third is on life support after an accident last week as they battled Panhandle wildfires.
Volunteer firefighter Jeff Cook is confined to a hospital bed, with a brace protecting his three broken neck bones.
He and the two other men were just off Interstate 40 in a field near Alanreed on March 12th — a day when hundreds of blazes broke out in the parched region. Some 960-thousand acres burned and killed eleven people.
Full Story: Firefighter remains critically injured; two recovering