Crews Battle Payne County Grass Fire From Ground, Sky

Powerful winds made tough work for firefighters as grass fires threatened both homes and schools Friday.

One of the grass fires was an all-too-familiar reminder for some folks in Drumright, where dozens of fire crews have been working to prevent another disaster.

Friday night, the Drumright fire chief said the fire is under control but estimates up to 800 acres may have burned.

1/29/2016 Related Story: Creek County Fire Spreading Quickly In Strong Winds

As the sun went down, the fire burned on - as did the fight to put it out.

There was an aerial assault from the sky, as the Forestry Department's Black Hawk helicopter flew in, dipped its buckets in ponds and then dropped the water on the burning land below.

On the ground, neighbors watched an all too familiar scene; some like Daniel Cargill said it felt like déjà vu.

“It's nightmares,” he said. “My nightmares is watching a fire. I can't stand it. Don't even like going to bar-b-ques anymore.

Cargill has been through this before. In 2012 he lost his home to a wildfire, so did many in his family.

“Wildfires aren't nothing to joke about, man,” he said.

His new place is still under construction, and on Friday, firefighters kept him from being a victim again.

Cargill said, “Thank goodness the truck was going up there, round and round it, trying to put the fire out cause it was smoldering around it. It was burning around it.”

Nearly 100 firefighters battled the flames as the wind pushing them quickly toward rural homes; but that wasn't the only challenge, according to Drumright Fire Chief, Brett Lunsford.

“Our biggest problem today was the moisture that we've got, so we kept getting trucks stuck,” he said. “So we were having to get dozers in to pull some of the brush trucks out.”

As day turned to dusk, the fire was close to contained - putting life in perspective for Cargill once again.

“I'm always lucky. Any day above ground is a good day,” he said. “As long as my family and nobody got hurt, that's a good day. Things can be replaced. People can't.”

Neighbors played a big part in Friday's fire fight - one even drove his tractor out to help build a fire break to protect a friend's business and home. Another brought his water tank to help put out hot spots.

“Good neighbors are hard to find, so ya know, we're gonna take care of each other out here,” said neighbor Randal James.

There are still some hot spots, but firefighters will be out most, if not all of the night, to make sure those don't spark another fire.

No homes were damaged.

The fire chief said the fire started in Payne County, but didn't give an exact location. Firefighters will have to investigate what started the fire.