NOBLE, Okla. -
By TIM TALLEY
Associated Press
NOBLE, Okla. (AP) - A
wildfire whipped by gusty, southerly winds swept through rural woodlands
south of the Oklahoma City area Friday, burning several homes as
firefighters struggled to contain it in 113-degree heat.
Oklahoma's emergency
management officials said 25 structures had burned east of Noble,
including a handful of homes. The sheriff's office directed residents of
75 to 100 houses to leave the area as flames spread through treetops.
The evacuation area, south of Lake Thunderbird, is about 30 square
miles.
The state Highway Patrol
closed part of the main highway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa because
of a fire that may have been deliberately set. Local deputies were
looking into reports about passengers in a pickup truck who were seen
throwing out newspapers that had been set on fire.
"I loaded the kids up,
grabbed my dogs, and it didn't even look like I had time to load the
livestock, so I just got out of there," said Bo Ireland, who lives a few
miles from where the Noble-area fire started. "It looked to me that, if
the wind shifted even a little bit, I would be in the path of that
fire. It was just too close."
There were no immediate
reports of injuries or livestock losses from the fires, which also
charred the earth near Geary and Luther.
With the ongoing drought,
high temperatures and gusty winds, it took little for fires to begin and
spread - and there was little crews could do to fight them.
"It's difficult for the
firefighters to get into the area because it's heavily wooded on either
side of the smaller roads. When the winds are blowing 25 mph it just
blows the embers and fireballs across the roads as if they weren't even
there," said Jerry Lojka with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency
Management.
At mid-afternoon Friday,
the temperature at nearby Norman was 113. Winds were from the south and
southwest at 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph.
"I can tell you the
temperatures and the wind are not helping the situation at all. Some
homes have been lost in the fire unfortunately, but we don't know how
many," said Meghan McCormick, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland County
Sheriff's office.
Russell Moore, 53, who
lives in the Noble area, said he was outside in his yard when a
sheriff's deputy drove down the road and told people to leave. He and
his son went to a shelter set up at Noble City Hall, but planned to go
to his daughter's home in Norman.
"About all we saw was smoke
and a little bit of ash raining down from the sky," Moore said.
"Everybody was piling into their vehicles and leaving as we were."
Lojka said an Oklahoma
National Guard helicopter has been dispatched to a fast-moving blaze in
Luther, northeast of Oklahoma City. He also said helicopters were
helping ground crews with a fire near Mannford and Drumright in Creek
County. Helicopters from the National Guard and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs were fighting a fire in Creek County.
The Oklahoma County
Sheriff's Office said it was investigating reports that someone in a
black pickup truck near Luther was tossing out newspapers that had been
set on fire. The blaze and smoke led the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to shut
down part of the Turner Turnpike, which carries Interstate 44 between
Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Traffic was rerouted onto old U.S. Route 66,
the famed two-lane highway that crisscrosses Oklahoma.
The state was monitoring 11
fires in all Friday afternoon. Gov. Mary Fallin announced a statewide
burn ban as the fire danger heightened. She previously had announced a
state of emergency for all 77 counties due to the extreme drought.
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