Published: April 12, 2009 03:51 pm      

Emergency declared

Velma’s 2009 battle continues late friday

VELMA — Two fires flared up Friday in Velma, but hopes were that those blazes would be under control soon with the assistance of two National Guard Blackhawk helicopters.

“I talked to Congressman (Tom) Cole this morning and we have the National Guard here now,” Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney said. “With that assistance, we have a chance to get it under control.”

McKinney said that the nature of a few of the fires were suspicious, but “not all of these fires could have been set.”

McKinney added, “I think it is just with the wind it caused some sparks and that is how most of them started.”

McKinney also said that there has been a rotation worked out with the Town of Velma where his deputies would share in the duties of patrolling the town.

“We’ve offered our assistance to Velma,” he said. “We covered Velma last night, and we have a schedule worked out since they only have one police officer. We didn’t have any problems (Thursday) night. People had to check in and we enforced that.

“We are going to do the same thing (Friday night) and we’ll continue to do that until they can handle it themselves.”

The timeline for McKinney to pull his deputies is a week, he said.

On Saturday, McKinney said another massive fire erupted between Loco and Velma.

The command post has been set up and all efforts are in putting that fire out, McKinney said at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Other than that additional fire that sprung up, the fires in Velma have started to die down Saturday, he said.

“We’ll keep fighting the fires until we get some rain,” McKinney said. “I hope we get some rain tonight.”

John Nally is a Velma volunteer firefighter who had been battling the blazes for more than 16 hours by noon Friday.

“Some of them (firefighters) have been out since 9 a.m. (Thursday),” Nally said. “I’ve been out since about 8 p.m., but I went to work at 4 a.m. Thursday.”

Nally admitted that the long days can take a toll on people, but it has a different effect on different people.

“It affects you, but it all depends on the person,” he said. “I’m used to long hours with my job.”

Nally said that he was surprised with how many entities responded to the call for help.

“Yeah, I really am,” he said. “I am and I’m not. What I’m surprised with is the quickness of the response.”

However, help didn’t come quick enough for some, like Penny Morgan, who lost her beauty shop on the west edge of town to the fire.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” Morgan said. “I didn’t have insurance, so I really don’t know.”

Morgan, who lives in Comanche, was evacuated from the beauty shop around 3:30 p.m. and was back picking through what was left just before 11 a.m. Friday.

Morgan noted that her mother-in-law’s home in Meridian was threatened by fire, but that no damage was done.

Monte Tadlock, a Velma firefighter who suffered smoke inhalation, said that all of the training that the firefighters do prevented more damage.

“We do a lot of training,” he said. “(Thursday) we were supposed to finish a HAZMAT training, but that got canceled. We do tons of training.

“With all the training we do, you can look out there and see what we would have lost if we didn’t have the training we do. It’s bad to say, but you’re going to lose some.”

Despite the training, there were times when Tadlock admits that he thought the entire town of Velma might burn to the ground on Thursday.

“When a 25-foot wall of fire came out, I thought we were done,” he said.

Fires continued to breakout throughout the day, including a house fire near Nally Road and old State Highway 7 west of Velma. Also on Friday afternoon, Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency for 31 counties impacted by Thursday’s devastating wildfires and severe weather.

Under that executive order, state agencies can make emergency purchases and acquisitions needed to expedite the delivery of resources to local jurisdictions. The declaration also marks a first step toward seeking federal assistance, should it be necessary.

Counties included in the executive order are: Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Custer, Garvin, Grady, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Jefferson, Kay, Kiowa, LeFlore, Lincoln, Logan, Love, McClain, Murray, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Payne, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Stephens, Tillman and Washita. LeFlore County is included because of damages sustained from a tornado and severe storms.