City Of Tulsa Closes Mulch Site Due To Fire

Tulsa's mulch site is still shut down because of a fire there that's been burning for days.

The fire has burned since Monday, and it was still burning Friday night. It's been kept under control, but on Friday with all the dryness and high wind crews shut the site down. Smoke covered the roadway and worksite Friday afternoon as the fire entered its fifth day.

"They're huge piles, and once there's smoldering inside there, it's almost impossible to get water on all of that fire," said Andy Little with the Tulsa Fire Department.

Much of the city's broken branches and fallen tree limbs end up there - and this week's storms made a busy site even busier. The mulch fires created a backup of landscapers and left them unable to unload downed limbs or load up on mulch. Little says the re-opening will only happen once the site is safe.

"We've got to keep this isolated, so the site has to be closed. We can't have people coming and going when there's a potential danger," he said.

He says the problem could be the piles of mulch themselves.

"We believe it may have been caused just by decomposition which creates heat, but it's hard to say," he said.

Fire crews say they made good progress today by splitting the piles up and letting the smaller chunks burn out.

"Crews here at the mulch site are working to try and isolate these piles, keep them from getting worse, but it's very difficult," Little said.

The city says it'll announce when the mulch site is back open - but until then you're asked to split yard debris into small two by four-foot bundles and leave them for trash crews.