MARLOW —
Marlow firefighters, with the aid of several area and neighboring fire departments, battled multiple fires east and west of U.S. Highway 81 Friday from mid-day throughout the night. The fires forced sudden evacuations and even had firefighters quickly moving out of the line of danger. As they got the one under control near Caddo Rd., another near Blackburn Road became extremely dangerous.
As the weather changed Friday afternoon, bringing cooler temperatures and stronger winds, a grass fire along Caddo Rd. became large enough to cause Marlow Police to evacuate residents for safety reasons.
Around 6:13 p.m., officers and firefighters told residents in the area from McKinley Rd east to Ninth Street on Caddo to evacuate for safety reasons because of the flames.
Marlow Police Chief Jimmy Williams said firefighters had been battling the blaze throughout Friday, but the sudden increase of winds about 5:30 kicked the fire into high speed.
“The wind shifted and kicked it back up real quick,” he said.
As the grassfire near Caddo was starting to be contained, another grassfire begun spreading in the meadow behind the old Walmart store, on the east side of U.S. Hwy. 81.
“We were just sitting in the living room and the next thing I know, we had ashes coming in the back door,” Dustin Dees, Blackburn Rd. resident said.
Both fires were rekindles of grassfires which first occurred Thursday afternoon.
Traffic was shut down along Blackburn Road around 7 p.m. Friday, including near U.S. Hwy. 81 as firefighters from Marlow, Central, Bray, Empire, Oakridge, Velma and Duncan worked to tackle the fires as they headed south towards homes located on the north side of Blackburn.
“The fire was extreme, it was moving real fast to the south,” Velma Fire Chief David Bloodworth said.
Velma brought two brush trucks and worked to fight spot fires near the structures as best they could as winds grew strong, with Bloodworth estimating the winds peaking at 50 mph at the scene.
“The winds were just horrendous. One minute, it would be blowing out of the west then the north,” Bloodworth said. “At times, the smoke was so extreme, we couldn’t see the hood of the truck.”
The VFD had to leave the scene in Marlow to battle a grass fire a mile and a half east of Velma on State Highway 7, which was contained around 11:30 p.m. Friday.
Bloodworth said the evening showers provided much needed relief to those facing the fires across Stephens County.
“It helped a lot, the humidity came up and the wind died down, help us to get it all shut down,” Bloodworth said.
The Stephens County Sheriff’s Incident Command Unit was established at Blackburn and Railroad to provide extra support as firefighters worked to contain the fires.
Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney was at the IC post and could witness the flames shooting up into the night sky.
“We have a lot of firefighting apparatus in the area and we are spread pretty thin tonight. The winds are gusting around 35 miles per hour.”
No injuries were reported and an outbuilding was damaged but no other structural damage was reported, according to Associated Press reports as of Saturday afternoon. Actual acreage burned and structure reports have not yet been obtained from local fire chiefs.
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