Mar. 4—The Texas Panhandle wildfires are still burning — and not nearly contained — after devastating nearly 1.3 million acres as they scorched a path through Texas, burning homes, killing two people and jumping into western Oklahoma last week.

“We don’t have a Glencoe situation on our hands,” said Jeff Kuhn, emergency management director for Payne County, “but some of the conditions are there.”

Payne County District 2 Commissioner Chris Reding said, the Board of County Commissioners are the ones that vote in or put the burn ban into place.

“We have the fuel, and we have the wind, and things aren’t green enough yet to slow anything down,” he said. “So, if we can keep the metrics down (out of control fires specifically) that’s a controllable variable.”

To meet burn ban conditions, the area would have to be in severe drought — the County is in no drought at all — and we don’t have any other fires going currently exhausting fire service resources, Kuhn said. Those are the other conditions that the commissioners would look at in putting a burn ban into place.

That big fire that happened in Western Oklahoma from the Texas fires, it’s very similar terrain, and that could easily happen in western Payne County, Reding said.

“But we don’t want to get in the way of anyone doing their work,” Reding said.

“We understand people need to burn their fields. Our emphasis is please be careful, please be aware of the conditions and please have a little bit of patience before you burn and make the calls you need to.

“One of the easiest ways for us to avoid the burn ban is to not have all those wildfires.”

Kuhn said with conditions (extremely dangerous: high winds, low humidity and dormant grasses) being what they are currently, “Do not burn.”

“But if they’re going to, they need to check with somebody and check on the dangers of being able to burn that day.”

“In the county if you’re going to do any kind of a burn or fire, check with the Payne County Emergency Management Office or the Sheriff’s Office,” Kuhn said. “We encourage people to call in because even if they don’t need a permit in the county, we like to know what’s going on.

We have a lot of volunteer departments out there so if they have to respond to nothing but a controlled burn, it’s costing them money for no reason.”

Most people watch the news channels and weather but those don’t go into enough detail to know whether it’s safe to burn, he said.

“I have people calling me a lot and I keep up to date to know whether Monday is a good day or not,” Kuhn said.

“People within corporate city limits, you have to get a burn permit,” he said, so that person would need to talk to Stillwater Fire Department.

The 2012 Glencoe fire burned more than 2,000 acres and caused the Glencoe residents to evacuate their homes on Aug. 4 that year. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reported that 63 Payne County homes were damaged and 53 destroyed at the time.

Years later, residents would win a class action lawsuit against two firms working in areas of Glencoe where the fires were started.

The Stillwater Fire Marshal at the time of the fire, Trent Hawkins, told the News Press in a 2012 interview that heavy winds and high temperatures were working against firefighters.

The winds exceeded 20 mph, and the 107-degree temperature marked the 20th straight day of triple-digit temperatures.

Right now, Kuhn said, there are dangerous conditions, but in terms of what caused the Glencoe Fire, “We’re not there.”

To talk to Emergency Services within Payne County to ask about current burn or fire conditions, please call 405-334-7044.