Deadly fires scorch hundreds of thousands of acres
Wildfires had scorched between 200,000 and 300,000 acres in Beaver, Harper and Woodward counties by late Tuesday and led to the death of one woman, authorities reported.
Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency due to ongoing wildfires and critical weather conditions for 22 counties: Alfalfa, Beaver, Blaine, Cimarron, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Garfield, Grant, Harper, Kay, Kingfisher, Logan, Major, Noble, Osage, Payne, Pawnee, Roger Mills, Texas, Woods and Woodward.
Laverne, Buffalo, Gate and Fort Supply were evacuated Monday evening. Several homes have been lost to the wildfires, but a count was not available Tuesday.
Matt Lehenbauer, emergency management director for Woodward County, said none of the wildfires had been contained by sundown Tuesday.
Harper County Emergency Management Director Dale Spradlin said a 63-year-old woman was fighting flames with her husband at their farm near Buffalo on Monday when she suffered an apparent heart attack. The woman’s name was not released.
In Harper County, the Plum Thicket hog farm about 10 miles north of Laverne was heavily damaged and hogs were killed, Spradlin said.
A home between Laverne and Buffalo was destroyed by fire, and outbuildings and barns were lost and livestock killed in the area, he said.
Harper County officials reported multiple fires near Laverne and Buffalo. The Laverne fire later moved into Woodward County.
Lehenbauer said 200 head of cattle had been confirmed lost in Woodward County, with estimates expected to rise.
“The fire that burns from Laverne to May is 111 square miles, and we’re still measuringthe other fire in southern Harper County,” he said.
Lehenbauer said he expected portions of the fires to be contained Tuesday night.
Airplane tankers from the U.S. Forestry Services began dropping water on flare-ups at noon Tuesday. An airplane was used to survey wildfire damage in Woodward, Harper and Beaver counties in northwest Oklahoma.
Another wildfire that started Monday near Langston in Logan County burned into Payne County.
Fires that started Monday afternoon had not been contained Tuesday in northwest Oklahoma and southwest Kansas, officials reported. Authorities said a wildfire killed an Oklahoma truck driver in Kansas.
Corey Holt, 39, of Oklahoma City, jackknifed his tractor-trailer Monday while trying to back up his rig on Highway 34 in Clark County because of poor visibility and dust from the fires. He succumbed to smoke when he got out of the vehicle, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Clark County, which is on Kansas’ southern border with Oklahoma, is the hardest-hit by wildfires that have consumed an estimated 625 square miles in the state. Officials said 545 square miles of the burned land is in Clark County.
Fire conditions are expected to be near critical in northern and central Oklahoma on Wednesday, with high temperatures in the 70s and winds gusting up to 36 mph, according to the National Weather Service.