BA Neighbors Credit Firefighters’ Quick Action For Saving Homes

People in one Broken Arrow neighborhood said their houses would be piles of rubble if not for firefighters' quick actions.

A grass fire started right across from Bixby Northeast Elementary and Intermediate School; within minutes, flames swept down the entire block.

Neighbors said it's almost miraculous that none of their homes were touched. When they factor in the wind gusts and dry lawns, firefighters said it was a close call.

For many in the neighborhood, like Susan Gibson, their lawns have seen better days.

"Nope, never seen anything like this,” she said. “It went, it went really, really fast."

But given how close the flames came to her house, Gibson knows she and her neighbors got lucky.

"It could have been a lot worse," she said.

Firefighters aren't sure what caused the fire, but they do know it started on East 131st Street South and it only took a few minutes for flames to blaze down the entire block.

2/8/2016 Related Story: Fire Near Bixby Elementary School Out, No Structures Damaged

Battalion Chief Dough Owens with the Broken Arrow Fire Department said, "We did an excellent job of saving houses. It burned right up to the very back of eight or ten houses."

And the homeowners know it.

Denise Jacobsen owns a horse pasture at the end of the street; she said had firefighters not stopped it from spreading, she would have had to pack up her horses and go.

"They said that they had to make the stop before my horse pasture because if it got to there, it was gone to the river," she said.

But, battling, both, wind and fire, crews worked hard to kill the flames before they could spread any further.

"I wanna commend my guys, they did a great job. These are hard conditions - when the wind is blowing like this - to get the fire out," Owens said.

Jacobsen said, "All these houses could have been up but instead there's not a one touched."

One firefighter did go to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation; he is expected to be okay.

The only structure that burned was one family’s wooden play set.