Despite a drop in the strong winds that hit 70 mph in some areas of Oklahoma on Wednesday, firefighters still anticipate a weekend of potentially more wildfires in the state.
A Thursday report by the Oklahoma Forestry Services stated that conditions continue to degrade “posing significant resistance to control” and not requiring the kind of winds in the past week to drive “problematic fire behavior.” In other words, dry conditions won’t need strong winds to create large wildfires in the state.
“By Saturday, almost the entirety of Oklahoma will exceed that threshold with much of the northern tier of the state tipping past the 90th Percentile as fire danger concern persists in Oklahoma.”
Possible rain this weekend might ease some potential for wildfires in certain areas of the state.
“There is optimism for some rain/storm chances late Saturday in eastern Oklahoma potentially providing some relaxation
of continuing fire danger concern while most of western and central Oklahoma remains dry. Sunday will pose near-critical fire
weather in western Oklahoma over fuels that have proven to support challenging firefighting conditions.”
While winds are much lower than earlier in the week, some of the state’s major wildfires are still not totally under control, especially the largest fire, the 840 Road Fire which has burned nearly 28,000 acres in Roger Mills and Dewey Counties. It is only about 60% contained.
Ongoing Large / Significant Fire Activity within the OFS Protection Area:(>100 Acres Timber / >300 Acres Grass/Brush)
• Hulsey Prairie Fire (Latimer County) – 451 Acres / 75% Contained
• Channel 2 Fire (McCurtain County) – 142 Acres / 50% Contained
• Boggs Hollow (Latimer County) – 782 Acres / 82% Contained
• Waits Lane Fire (LeFlore County) – 794 Acres / 80% Contained
• Yellow Springs Fire (LeFlore County) – 115 Acres / 80% Contained
• Hog Mountain Fire (Latimer County) – 938 Acres / 70% Contained
• Eight Mile Fire (Latimer County) – 400 Acres / 71% Contained
• Rugged Mountain Fire (Pittsburg County) – 1,463 Acres / 80% Contained
• Railroad Track Fire (Pushmataha County) – 223 Acres / 50% Contained
• Wesley Fire (Atoka County) – 252 Acres / 65% Contained
• Dirty Pine Fire (Pushmataha County) – 157 Acres / 100% Contained
• Venison Hollow Fire (Adair County) – 402 Acres / 70% Contained
• Doublehead South Fire (Adair County) – 647 Acres / 70% Contained
• Doublehead Mountain Fire (Adair County) – 483 Acres / 70% Contained
• Black Fox Fire (Sequoyah County) – 106 Acres / 85% Contained
• Flying J Fire (Latimer County) – 1,154 Acres / 100% Contained
• Plan B Fire (Latimer County) – 800 Acres / 80% Contained
• Tully Hollow Fire (Adair County) – 205 Acres / 90% Contained
Fire Activity with OFS Response Outside of the Protection Area: 3 New Fires Burned 768.1 Acres
• Ranch Creek Road Fire (Pawnee County) – 513 Acres / 40% Contained
• 840 Road Fire (Roger Mills/Dewey County) – 27,855 Acres / 60% Contained
• Camargo Fire (Dewey County) – 6,075 Acres / 60% Contained
• Little Salt Creek Fire (Pawnee County) – 11,190 Acres / 35% Contained
• Hickory Hills Fire (Oklahoma County) – 6,643 Acres / 50% Contained
• 33 Road Fire (Logan/Payne Counties) – 33,410 Acres / 50% Contained
• Euchee Valley Fire (Payne County) – 8,512 Acres / 75% Contained
• 328 Road Fire (Pawnee County) – 470 Acres / 10% Contained
