Multiple agencies help put out large wildfire near Kansas-Oklahoma state line
CHILOCCO, Okla. (KSNW) – Many wildfires scorched the nation this week, burning thousands of acres, homes, and livestock.
In the video above, KSN’s Zena Taher is seen standing on the Kansas-Oklahoma state line right in front of where a large wildfire triggered emergency evacuations Tuesday afternoon. It was in the tribal territory in Oklahoma, but nearby is state-owned land and across the road is Kansas.
The burned patch seen in the video is part of a larger area that was in flames. Multiple agencies from across states and municipalities had to work together to put out the fire.
Firefighters in Oklahoma had already crossed state lines to Kansas earlier in the day to help the Arkansas City Fire Department put out large grass fires (one after the other) that required collaboration between their firefighters.
An incident this close to different territories and jurisdictions requires a response from multiple governments.
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One Ponca City fire official who was walking through the area said that he wasn’t surprised that this fire happened even though it was a big one.
Kay County Emergency Manager Daniel Hesson says wildfires have amped up the past two or three years. He says it comes down to drought. Dry conditions are prompting the county to look for more effective ways to respond to brush fires.
He says that Tuesday held many firsts for the county, including the first time they had a wildland automatic response or “War Day.”
“We knew we were gonna be in a critical fire danger day, so we consolidated our resources early and deployed them quickly and promptly to every fire call we had in the county yesterday,” said Hesson.
Basically, the county is split into four quadrants, each with multiple fire departments, instead of following tradition and having each fire department only respond to the calls in their area and wait to get on the scene before calling reinforcements.
If there’s a fire in a specific quadrant, every fire department in that area will respond.
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Not all municipalities have equal resources.
Kaw Nation has jurisdiction over one of the areas that experienced wildfires on Tuesday. Emergency Management Director Dany Chouteau says they do not have a fire department of their own, so they have to pull from nearby tribes and cities’ departments to put out fires in the area.
One of those nearby areas is Newkirk, Oklahoma, which also provides EMS services to nearby tribal land.
“We’re under a contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to protect the Indian land up there, so we have a good working relationship with them, so the state and tribal thing that’s really not an issue with the Newkirk Fire Department,” said the City of Newkirk Fire Chief Adam Longcrier.
Newkirk itself, however, is a small fire department. When bigger events like the fires on Tuesday happen, they call to others for help.
“We actually only have two to three people on shift here in Newkirk at a time every day, so having these mutual aid agreements with the departments around us helps us attack these fires more efficiently and more quickly,” said Chief Longcrier.
“Since we do share a border with Kansas, we can call upon them right now. We don’t have any mutual aid agreements on the books,” said Hesson.
That is what happened when the fires broke out in Arkansas City and at the Kansas-Oklahoma state line. When Newkirk firefighters were on their way back, they spotted the fire in Oklahoma, so they asked Arkansas City to send first responders down to help.
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