Wildfire in the Oklahoma Panhandle

A wildfire swept through my community in the Panhandle of Oklahoma today. They have not had enough rain for several years now, so the dry fields of grass went up quickly and the fire was pushed along by 40-50 mph winds.

My Uncle Steve noticed the fire right behind the two homes at Slapout and went knocking on the doors and alerting the residents, who had no idea there was a fire in their backyard. That got them out of their houses and manning water hoses to try to protect their homes. He alerted the volunteer fire department and called my Dad and the calls continued to go out through the community. Fire trucks raced toward the community from everywhere, including Texas and Kansas, and neighbors piled into vehicles grabbing shovels and whatever else they could find to go help fight for their neighbors homes. Dad said there ended up being over 150 vehicles, including fire trucks, police vehicles, and other vehicles helping fight the fire.

The fire jumped the highway and gobbled up the two miles of grassland between there and the next homes within thirty minutes. Dad got my brother and headed to my other Aunt and Uncles house to make sure it was protected. He arrived there and the well house was on fire, but a fire truck was there putting it out. He thought it was safe to leave it to them and keep going on towards other neighbors houses. The highway was closed because the smoke over it was too thick to drive through. Dad said the flames reached thirty feet in the air. He went around the back way--at times they had to pause because the smoke was too thick to see to drive through.

When they got to the Well's house, Earl was there at his son's house with the sprinklers on trying to keep the fire away from the house. Meanwhile, the trees and field between Earl's house, his son's house, and the Laverty's house across the street were on fire. (Dad said the Laverty's had evacuated their house). Another neighbor pulled up and told Earl his cows were trapped in the field. Dad told him he had his son's house covered and Earl went off to see to his cows. The neighbor took my brother with him, leaving my Dad to keep moving the sprinkler around and do the best he could with the shovel he had to keep the fire that was licking at the yard from coming on in. At that time, the fire trucks showed up and started fighting the fire.

Dad left there and went to help Earl with his cows. Earl was frantic about his house and the animals there, so Dad said he'd take care of the cows and Earl left. Dad herded the cows into the corner by the gate, but he waited and watched the fire approaching. He didn't want to let the cows out into the road because of all the smoke and vehicles and he didn't want them to get hit. The fire was within 25 yards and more fire trucks came and they started fighting that fire. Dad went back around and made sure everything was under control before moving on. He said a neighbor with a big bulldozer/earth mover came riding in and would scoop up dirt from the bar ditches and head towards the houses, disappearing into the smoke to dump the dirt around the houses to keep the fire from getting to them, then he would reappear out of the smoke. When he got done at that house, he was driving off and one of his tires was flat, but he kept going. So did Dad. They both ended up at the same house next and helped there until they thought it was under control. Dad said when he left that house, the neighbor was on his rim, but just kept right on heading towards the next house.

And on and on it continued. When I talked to Dad, he had just come in at 7:45 pm, after being out fighting it all day. He said the fires were still burning, especially the trees. He just had to go in and get something to eat. He said my brother would probably be out helping fight it until midnight or so. All in all, several unoccupied buildings burned, including my Aunt and Uncles second house and well house (the house caught on fire while they were putting out the fire to the well house, but it wasn't noticed until smoke was billowing out of the house because it is thought the fire crept in under the stucco or went in through the electric line). One other house no one lived in burned down as well.

As far as we know, there was no loss of life. Who knows how many other heroic neighbors were out there that never saw each other because of the many miles of fire involved and because of the heavy smoke. I thank God for a community of people who care about each other and look out for one another. If you think of the Slapout community, please pray for them. They need rain (but they don't need flooding!). And those who had damaged or lost buildings or burned up grass fields or lost animals, need compensated for their loss so they can rebuild or at least don't have to suffer financially because of it. And all the fires need to be put on so there will be no more loss tonight, or any other night. And pray that beauty comes from the ashes.