DALLAS — As Oklahomans assessed the devastation from wildfires that whipped across the state, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes, officials in both Oklahoma and Texas warned Sunday of an increased risk of fire danger in the coming week.
“We’re going to be back into a critical area,” Oklahoma Forestry Services spokesperson Keith Merckx said Sunday.
Wildfires fueled by high winds swept across the state on Friday. The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Sunday evening that over 400 homes were damaged statewide Officials said Sunday that at least four people had died because of the severe weather in Oklahoma.
Jeremy Cook was among the residents in Stillwater, a city of about 50,000 located about 65 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City, who returned home Saturday morning to find that his house was gone. Cook told The Oklahoman that when his family fled Friday, they loaded up three cars with photographs, pets, books and paintings.
After returning to find his home burned to the foundation, he said he was going back and forth “between laughing and crying.”
At least 74 homes in and around Stillwater were destroyed by wildfires, Mayor Will Joyce said Sunday night on Facebook. Fire Chief Terry Essary said at a news conference Saturday that the fires spread rapidly and crews had difficulty containing each one because of the high winds and low humidity. He said they quickly became overwhelmed.
“Nobody has enough resources to fight fires when the wind is blowing 70 mph,” Essary said. “It’s an insurmountable task.”
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said on Sunday evening that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had confirmed four fatalities related to the fires or high winds across the state. There was one death each in Lincoln, Garfield, Haskell and Pawnee counties.
Details were not given on the deaths in Haskell and Pawnee counties. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said the person in Garfield County was killed in a vehicle accident due to poor visibility due to dust or smoke and that a man died in Lincoln County.
Deborah Ferguson told News 9 that her husband, Allen Ferguson, was killed in Lincoln County. She said that her husband and her 15-year-old son had been fighting a wildfire in a pasture on Friday and as they fled on a four-wheeler, it crashed into a tree amid heavy smoke. She said her son was badly burned and is hospitalized.
Erin O’Connor, a spokesperson with the Texas A&M Forest Service, said the region on Friday had the “perfect recipe for wildfires” with high winds, dry conditions and above normal temperatures. She said that less wind on Sunday had helped crews get a handle on the fires but that more fire activity was expected this coming week.
One of the largest fires in Texas currently had burned about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) near Fredericksburg, west of Austin, but was 40% contained by Sunday, she said.
The winds that swept across Texas and Oklahoma were so strong that they turned over several tractor-trailers. Authorities have said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm caused by high winds in the Texas Panhandle on Friday.
After touring the damage in Stillwater and Mannford, a city of about 3,000 located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Tulsa, on Saturday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt went on to survey the damage at his ranch outside of Oklahoma City, where his home there had burned to the ground.
“We’ll be rebuilding with the rest of Oklahoma,” Stitt said in a video posted on X. “You never think it’s going to happen to your place and these wildfires just come out of nowhere and can really take over.”