Beggs Resident Loses Car, Memories In Wildfire

Lacie Lowry, News On 6

BEGGS, Oklahoma -- Beggs residents are looking for anything they can salvage from Friday's massive wildfire.

03/11/2011 Related Story: Governor Fallin Declares State Of Emergency In Wake Of Wildfires

One man lost a barn that housed his passion for the last forty years.

Buck Clayton's cringes at the thought of what he lost inside.

"It's been my passion since way back in 1965," Clayton said.

That passion is restoring old cars, and that charred mess is all that's left of his baby -- a car he had been slowly restoring for the last 40 years.

"It was a four-door sedan, 1950 Chevrolet Power Glide. That was the first year they came out with automatic transmission," he said.

Clayton bought the Chevy in 1972 and had redone everything from front to back. It was 61 years old and only had 51,000 miles on it.

"New paint, it shined just like new, everything on it. New white walls, and so I had it really, really nice," Clayton said.

Clayton also had a fully-restored 1946 "H" Farmall cast-iron tractor that burned up in the fire. He bought it with his father-in-law in 1968 and he built this barn with him that same year.

The fire took almost everything that was sentimental to him.

"All my kids' bikes and tricycles and things from when they were little. Those girls are in their 40s now. Everything burned up that I had kept for 40 years," he said.

He also lost a 1946 Buick that he used for parts on his restoration projects. Clayton managed to save one old tractor and says his passion lives on, thanks to his faith.

"It's a lost feeling. You don't know how to feel. But you just thank God you are still here," he said.

Clayton is thankful to firefighters who saved his newer barn, which was only feet away from the one that burned.