Local crews, Oklahoma officials dispute emergency request as Mooreland wildfire burns

Fire crews on Wednesday fought a massive wildfire that has burned thousands of acres and forced residents to evacuate in Woodward County as a historic heat wave has worsened drought conditions in Oklahoma.

The fire started Monday afternoon northeast of Mooreland, a small town of 1,100 people about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. By Tuesday, the fire had stretched nearly 10 miles northeast of the town and had consumed 18,000 acres, according to state officials.

Crews with Oklahoma Forestry Services have worked alongside various fire departments from surrounding counties to fight the fire. The local terrain, full of canyons and cedar trees, is also causing the fire to burn longer and spread more quickly.

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By Wednesday afternoon the fire had not been contained, according to Woodward County Emergency Management director Matt Lehenbauer. Helicopters from the Oklahoma National Guard arrived to provide aerial support with water buckets.

"It takes some time, if they're not on standby, to get the crews together, to get the helicopter ready to fly," said Keli Cain, public affairs director for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. "It typically can't happen overnight."

Firefighters from Enid, Breckinridge, Covington, Douglas, Drummond, Hunter, Lahoma, Kremlin and Pioneer-Skeleton Creek were helping fight the fire.

Shifting winds forced the fire to change directions Wednesday, spreading it southwest, closer to the city of Mooreland.

"The cold front apparently has pushed through the area, and the winds out of the northeast there have shifted to where the fire's burning in there toward Mooreland," said Mike Honigsberg, emergency manager for Garfield County.

Winds had averaged 5 to 10 mph in Woodward County, according to the National Weather Service, but gusts got as high as 15 to 20 mph, which made the blaze more difficult to control.

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County officials ordered an evacuation of the area, which included at least a dozen homes. One firefighter battling the Mooreland blaze was treated for heat exhaustion, but as of late Wednesday afternoon, no deaths had been reported as a result of the fire.

Honigsberg said on social media he was told by other local fire officials that the state had denied requests for emergency assistance "multiple times," prompting a short-lived outcry, but state officials disputed the claim.

"The local (emergency managers) made the request at 2:00pm to (the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services) and our office received OMES email at 2:12pm, so it’s inaccurate to say the Governor has denied any emergency request at this time," wrote Carly Atchison, communications director for Gov. Kevin Stitt, in an email.

State emergency management officials also said it took under 30 minutes for Stitt to approve the request Tuesday afternoon, but the process for organizing, preparing and dispatching aerial support through the National Guard took longer.

"I think there might have been some misinformation out in the field," Cain said. "I don't know where that information came from, but sometimes the air support doesn't start until the next day, just because of timing."

Honigsberg clarified Wednesday afternoon he had no involvement in the emergency request, but "ran with" what he'd been told by his team.

"I don't know if 'denied' is the right word for what happened, but I wasn't there and I wasn't the one that requested it," Honigsberg said. "I just passed the story along. And I've talked with state officials since then about it, so I think we'll be OK. We're just going to go by protocol and procedure. This way everybody's on the same page for the next time."

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Meteorologists said cooler temperatures had passed through Mooreland along with the wind shift on Wednesday, but the best chance for relief was forecasted rain Thursday.

"As we get into Thursday night, that's really when we'll see the chances for substantial precipitation," said Matthew Day, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Norman. "We've got a 70% chance over Woodward County for that night, and we're looking at a quarter to a half-inch of rain. Anything over a quarter-inch should be helpful."

Preliminary data from The National Wildfire Coordinating Group showed 13 additional wildfires in Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon. Emergency officials in Blaine County — after largely extinguishing early Monday a major grass fire in their own county that had burned for nearly two weeks — announced they would be deploying a task force to Woodward, along with the neighboring fire departments of Canton, Eagle City, Geary, Greenfield, Hitchcock, Longdale and Loyal.

"We all work well together anyway, so we really never have a problem," Honigsberg said. "We're just a major team here, and we work well with our surrounding counties. We are more than happy to help in these kinds of situations. We've got the equipment, so we're using it."

Staff writer Dale Denwalt contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Emergency crews fight Mooreland wildfire with help from National Guard