As predicted for the past week, Thursday morning strong, southernly winds started sweeping through the area. Within what seemed like minutes wildfires started erupting across the county and much of Oklahoma.
firemenA fire that had swept southward Tuesday made a 180-degree turn and ravaged its way north forcing homeowners to get livestock out of the way. Fire crews from all over the state eventually found themselves in Henryetta and the area trying to contain the flames.
At one point, the fire crackled through a valley before stopping on the edge of the I-40 pavement.
A zoo of exotic animals owned by Blake Coble had to be evacuated. That meant getting them in cages and carted to safety just within a few minutes ahead of the advancing flames.
Several houses were threatened by the fires around Henryetta but none received any damage.
That was not the case further north where several mobile homes and outbuildings were destroyed in the Dripping Springs area.
The west side of Okmulgee County saw fire race through a 9,000-acre ranch west of Wilson. By nightfall, over 90 percent of that ranch had been blackened.
The plume of yellow, pungent smoke was blown all the way to Tulsa where motorists found visibility cut to less than three miles in several cases.
After the sun set Thursday, a number of pulsating, orange glows could be seen around the county marking the location of the fires. In the darkness, thousands of small red and yellow points of light marked the remains of trees and fence posts.
Fires were not the only danger posed by the winds.
taco bellIn Henryetta shortly before noon, the two-year-old Taco Bell sign was blown over into the roadway. Although no vehicles happened to be passing by at the time, a number of people having an early lunch were startled by the crash. Pieces of the shattered sign littered the roadway and even a lot on the north side of Main. The street was closed for a short time until a wrecker could drag the steel and aluminum structure out of the roadway.
The wind was said to have been the cause of a brief electrical outage that hit Henryetta around 2:30. Homes and businesses were plunged into darkness for about a minute.
Heavy smoke drifting across I-40 just east of Henryetta posed a danger for motorists. ODOT crews brought up flashing signs warning motorists of the problem.
All told, grass fires were reported in Okfuskee, LeFlore, Nowata, Pawnee, Pittsburg, Washington, Craig, Harper, Canadian, Delaware, Grady, Hughes, Mayes, McIntosh, Oklahoma, Ottawa, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie and Tulsa counties.
Tanker trucks could be seen racing through Henryetta and the area in the pre-dawn hours Friday trying to keep exhausted firefighting crews supplied with water.