Matt Lehenbauer, director of emergency management for Woodward and its nearly 12,000 inhabitants, said the evacuation recommendation covers roughly 4,000 people. It is voluntary, he said, because Oklahoma prohibits mandatory evacuations, NBC News reported.
The wildfire in Woodward, about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, is approaching a “worst-case scenario,” Lehenbauer said, but it hasn’t moved into the most populated area of the city.
A blaze in Beaver County at the base of the Oklahoma Panhandle, about 217 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, has consumed an estimated 15,000 acres alone, Oklahoma Forestry Services said. The agency posted video of golden farmland set against the backdrop of roiling flames and dark smoke rising and sidestepping like a thunderstorm.
“The fire in Beaver County is continuing to spread,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement. “Winds are gusting over 65 mph.”
Stitt said he was being briefed at the State Emergency Operations Center, which was tracking the larger fires, including one in Texas County.
The fires consumed fuel along the western and northwestern areas of the state as unusually warm weather, predicted by the National Weather Service to reach as much as 25 degrees above normal during the day, was joined by gusting winds out of the southwest of more than 60 mph.
MA/PR
