With 40 to 50 mph winds in the forecast on Wednesday, a massive wildfire that started in northern Oklahoma on Tuesday burned out of control into southern Kansas. The wildfire left a path of destruction estimated at 70 miles in length, according to John Lehman, emergency management coordinator for Comanche County in Kansas. He said the fire loss combined in the two states could approach more than 60,000 acres of land, mostly large pastures that are miles in width.
The fire started in Woods County and by 6 o’clock Tuesday evening, Woods county authorities alerted Comanche county with a warning that the wildfire was crossing into Kansas.
Lehman said no one’s been injured but the winds whipped the fire so quickly that at times, firetruck drivers could not keep up with the racing fire. An estimated 70 firetrucks and hundreds of firefighters, mostly volunteers, battled the blaze that at last word had slowed at Kansas highway 160 east of the town of Coldwater.
No homes were destroyed but at one ranch, firefighters used foam to protect three homes.
