Tires Burn At Sperry Salvage Yard

A stubborn salvage yard fire in Sperry sent up thick smoke, which could be seen for miles around Thursday.

It was just before noon when firefighters got the call about a fire at a salvage yard just off Highway 11.

By the time firefighters got there, they had a challenge on their hands.

"We had two buses on fire, a trailer house, an abandoned scrapped trailer house and several piles of tires," said Mike Smith.

Smith is Sperry's Police Chief and Emergency Management Director. He says the fire was started when some men were cutting up an old school bus. Their cutting torches sent off sparks, catching fire to the dry grass.

"We have a lot of heavy wooded area back there with overgrowth from years and years of no maintenance," Smith said.

In fact, the grass near where the men were using cutting torches was about five feet tall. Smith said the biggest challenge to fighting the fire was getting access to it.

"We can't get the big trucks in, the big tankers, the big engines, so we had to fight a heavy fire load with our grass rigs," Smith said.

That prompted Sperry firefighters to call in additional crews from the Turley, Skiatook, Owasso and Black Dog departments.

A steady wind pushed the flames toward more vehicles and other scrapped items in the salvage yard, but firefighters were able to contain the flames.

And no nearby homes were threatened.

The police chief said the men who started the fire had permission to be on the property. And since there isn't a burn ban in effect, they likely won't be cited for any violations.