Okmulgee Family Surveys Damage After Wildfire Destroys Shop

Wildfires ran rampant across northeastern Oklahoma Thursday. The risk was lower Friday, but we're not out of the woods yet.

Helicopters spent part of the day dumping water on new fires and flare-ups from Thursday's wildfire outbreak.

Many counties are still assessing the damage, but we believe fires destroyed homes in Mayes, Okmulgee, and Pawnee counties.

Okmulgee County was one of the hardest hit areas, and they say parts of the largest wildfire in the county’s history are still smoldering.

The fire moved fast – burning ten miles long and ten miles wide – and destroyed several homes along Dripping Springs Road.

It was so ferocious Blackhawks were brought in to fight the flames from the air.

2/18/2016: Related Story: National Guard Helicopters Make Heroic Effort To Save Okmulgee County Building

In all, the emergency manager said five homes were lost; and if not for the many firefighters, it could have been much worse.

When you lose the things you've worked hard for all your life, words are hard to come by.

What are now piles of burned metal was once Jimmy Jones' shop - his place to getaway.

“This was my man cave, you could say. And I worked out of here, too…an electrical contractor, a lot of material and stuff,” he said.

His hobby was tinkering with and rebuilding classic cars, trucks and jeeps with his son.

Jones said the shop held a 1976 CJ-5 Golden Eagle, a 1981 Corvette, two Chevy pickups, a go cart, two ATVs, a lawn mower and a tractor as well as countless tools.

But, in an instant, Thursday's wildfire took that all away.

Jimmy and his wife weren't home and they really only had one concern, “We were worried about the dogs.”

Okmulgee County emergency manager, Tim Craighton, said the fire was moving about 400 feet per minute. His preliminary assessments suggest 64,000 acres may have burned in Okmulgee and Okfuskee Counties.

When firefighters got to Jimmy's place, the flames had already made it to his shop.

“They drove up, fire was here. They had to make a choice, what do we save? They saved the dogs and they saved the house,” Craighton said.

The flames shooting from Jimmy's shop were so big, a Blackhawk performed multiple water drops to put the fire out and keep it from spreading - that also helped in saving his home and dogs, too.

“We were lucky. Our house is still here, with some damage. The house to the south of us burned, house to the north of burned,”

This is a rural area with lots of cattle. The emergency manager said he hasn't heard of anyone losing livestock in the fire.

He'll be doing a final assessment next week.