OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Latest on wildfires burning in Oklahoma and Kansas (all times local):
6:50 a.m.
Shifting winds have pushed a large wildfire in northwest Oklahoma away from an iodine-manufacturing plant and the small town of Freedom, but authorities say the blaze is still burning out of control.
Woodward County Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer says the wildfire did not jump the Cimarron River overnight, which would have threatened Freedom, whose 300 residents were encouraged to leave Tuesday afternoon.
But Lehenbauer says Wednesday’s windy forecast will make it difficult for firefighters to control the blaze, which has burned about 40 square miles of rural land. Crews plan to survey the fire by air Wednesday morning to assess its size.
Lehenbauer says the blaze had threatened an iodine plant but firefighters were able to protect the facility by parking their firetrucks around its perimeter. He says the flames jumped over the vehicles and burned all the way around the plant before the winds shifted, diminishing the threat.
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1:50 a.m.
Authorities are responding to wildfires in Oklahoma and Kansas that have led to evacuations, scorched mostly rural land and destroyed an unknown number of structures.
In Oklahoma, the largest fire was in the same area near the border with Kansas where blazes last month scorched hundreds of square miles. Another burned near Luther, in the central part of the state.
Oklahoma Forestry Services said in a statement that structures had been lost in the fire, but a spokeswoman says the agency doesn’t have accurate damage totals yet.
In Kansas, evacuations were underway in at least three communities.
The National Weather Service warns conditions conducive to fire are forecast to occur in both states through Wednesday.
4:30 p.m.
Authorities near the Kansas border in Northwest Oklahoma are encouraging residents of the town of Freedom to evacuate as an uncontrolled wildfire spreads rapidly toward the community of about 300 people.
Woods County Emergency Management Director Steve Foster says sheriff’s deputies are encouraging residents of Freedom to leave.
The fire was about one to two hours southwest of Freedom as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and was pushed by winds gusting around 40 miles per hour, according to Woodward County Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer.
Lehenbauer says the fire also was threatening an iodine-manufacturing plant. Officials don’t believe the plant would be a significant explosion risk, but it could produce environmental hazards.
Officials estimate the fire has burned roughly 20 square miles of rural land, and is about 20 miles from the Kansas border.
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4 p.m.
Authorities in northwestern Oklahoma are evacuating roughly 100 square miles in northern Woodward County as a wildfire spreads rapidly toward the small town of Freedom.
Woodward County Emergency Management director Matt Lehenbauer said around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday that the fire was burning uncontrolled about one or two hours away from Freedom, a town of about 300. It was pushed by winds gusting around 40 miles per hour.
Lehenbauer says the fire is threatening homes and an iodine-manufacturing plant. Officials don’t believe the plant would be a significant explosion risk, but it could produce environmental hazards.
Officials estimate the fire has burned roughly 20 miles of rural land. More than a dozen fire departments and Oklahoma Forestry Services were fighting the blaze.