Firefighters Making Progress On Shawnee Wildfire

Wednesday, December 21st 2016, 5:33 pm

By: Aaron Brilbeck

Firefighters have a massive wildfire in Shawnee about 80 percent contained, but it was a very close call for a lot of people living nearby.

Stoney Parkhill said the flames came within feet of his house.

"When it got to where I could see the flames I started really worrying," he said.

Parkhill, like a lot of his neighbors, was forced to flee.

"We grabbed medication, got my little dog and we sat in the pick up over here. All of our neighbors. Those across the street," he said.

No homes were damaged, and no one was hurt.

It wasn’t very windy, but the flames were fueled by very dry grass, and dead trees; remnants of two recent tornadoes.

"That fuel is readily available and it just requires a longer duration firefight just because of the larger fuels that are burning," said Drew Daily with Oklahoma Forestry Services.

Firefighters were able to construct a perimeter around the wildfire and tackle it from within. That seems to be working.

"Tomorrow afternoon and evening precipitation chances creep into the picture along with higher relative humidity’s and hopefully by this weekend we'll be able to call this thing dead out," Daily said.

Investigators believe the fire is “human caused.” Because everything is so dry, firefighters urge people to avoid any outdoor burning.