SPRING FIRE DANGER IN SOUTHERN STATES: Oklahoma and Texas are bracing for several days of blistering, windy conditions that could set off wildfires. The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings and fire bans in some areas. “It’s just the start of spring,” accorded to the fire management officer for the Oklahoma Forestry Services. But the common period for wildfires, he added, often hits in March and April in the state.
Snow is melting and the rainfall has been below average, combining to render large swaths of tinderlike ground. On Thursday, the wind soughed through Oklahoma City, and as a breeze whipped through the state capital’s downtown, it flung empty trash containers around like toys. Across the state, more than 500 wildfires have already broken out this month, according to data published by the Forestry Services. Max Mayfield, who leads the service and is also the fire management officer, said that the largest of that batch of fires was burning about 20 miles east of Tulsa. “Everything is bone dry around here,” he said over the phone.
The conflagrations have wrecked chaos and cost. The largest blaze, in Texas’s Hayes County, has forced more than 2,200 people from their homes, the local sheriff said; many have relocated to Denison, which is just across the Red River in Oklahoma, The Associated Press reported. Firefighting crews have drawn decompression rotations — fortnightlong intermissions designed to help them rest — “because of the intensity and duration of the event,” said Shane K. O’Neill, a wildfire division chief for the Texas A&M Forest Service. Hours of exposure to smoke, he added, can lead to intense headaches, coughing symptoms and fatigue. “It’s like fighting a marathon fire but with no water,” Mr. O’Neill said. “All we have is our effort.”
The Red River flows mostly southwest to northeast, so its path will eventually carry the blaze away from Denison, tempering its threat. But that will likely occur after stretches of brutal, sometime-numbing fighting. The state, Mr. O’Neill said, has already drawn most of its resources from other non-overlapping wildfires.
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