SHAMROCK, Okla. – Firefighters yesterday chased a grass fire hop-scotching across a northeast Oklahoma town, while officials in Texas and New Mexico kept tabs on the wind and several massive wildfires their crews were fighting to contain.
In Shamrock, the suspected arson fire destroyed an abandoned schoolhouse, a home and other buildings as it raced through the town of about 100 residents. It took an air tanker repeatedly dropping fire retardant to put down the blaze.
In the past week and a half, grass fires started by as little as a spark from a car or an arcing power line have burned more than 600,000 acres across a drought-stricken stretch of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. The fires have destroyed at least 450 homes and killed four people.
A National Weather Service "red flag warning" in effect yesterday was extended to today. The warning means heat, low humidity and gusting wind could quickly spread wildfires. The Texas region is in one of its worst droughts in 50 years, meteorologist Jesse Moore said.
A 50,000-acre fire in Texas' Irion and Reagan counties, west of San Angelo, was nearly contained yesterday. But a 6,000-acre fire in Erath County that had been contained flared up again and was threatening several homes, the Texas Forest Service said.
In Oklahoma, it was much the same scene. Fires that began Sunday and continued into Monday reignited yesterday near Davis, Stroud and Eufaula, said fire information officer C.J. Norvell.
In New Mexico, firefighters doused clumps of smoldering grass and fence posts in an area just across the Texas state line. They were finally able to contain fires that had burned 10 homes hear Hobbs, said Dan Ware, state Forestry Division spokesman.
Investigations are under way into the cause of some of the recent grass fires. Cigarettes thrown from cars and arcing power lines have been blamed for some of the fires. Authorities are looking into the possibility that others, including the Shamrock fire, were intentionally set.
