Woodward, Okla. — The Fourth of July holiday kept Woodward area firefighters busy throughout the night as fireworks ignited multiple fires across the county.

Todd Finley, assistant fire chief, said since July 1 there has been 32 grass fires in Woodward County caused by fireworks.  But the vast majority of those fires occurred on the night of July 4.

There were a total of 22 fires on Independence Day, Finley said, with most occurring between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.

"There were more fires than we had resources to send to fires," he said. "This year was a bad year."

Finley said they had to call for help from several area fire departments, with men and units sent from Mooreland, Sharon, Mutual, Fort Supply, Fargo, the Ellis County Strike Team and Harper County.

Three of the biggest fires occurred on Hanks Trail by the Church of Christ, north on Highway 34 and on Trunkline Road which was actually in Ellis County, he said.

"The one over by the Church of Christ was really concerning us because the amount of potential structures (that could be damaged)," he said.

The assistant fire chief said efforts to extinguish these larger fires were somewhat hampered because units had to be sent out to fight several other smaller fires before returning to the bigger blazes.

"It caused a lot of problems trying to coordinate the amount of vehicles to the amount of calls," Finley said.



CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LIABILITIES POSSIBLE

Many of the fires were started by county roads and state highways, Finley said, noting that it is illegal to shoot fireworks off from roadways.  He said they also received many reports of people shooting fireworks off into fields, which then caught on fire.  The assistant fire chief said that is considered arson, and those who were responsible could potentially face criminal charges.

While it is unrealistic to think every case will be prosecuted, he said officials do have tag numbers, vehicle descriptions and even names in some cases that will be turned over to the Woodward County Sheriff's Office for further investigation.

Finley said another thing to remember is that if a fire is started on your property and spreads to someone else's, it will not be considered a crime but you could still be held liable through a civil case.



NEED TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS

Some precautions Finley said people should have taken to prevent the fires included having a responsible adult overseeing things, having a water source available and never shoot "out of your area."

Shooting out of your area means first, not buying and shooting off fireworks you cannot control, and second, never shooting fireworks into a larger area than you can cover, Finley said. For example, do not shoot fireworks into a field when you don't have the water resources to put out a fire you could potentially cause.

In addition, Finley said fireworks should not be set off near combustibles, including brush and tall grass or homes and other structures.

Furthermore, the assistant fire chief said it is important to educate children about what precautions need to be taken when dealing with fireworks and how dangerous they could be.

Beyond reminding citizens about proper fireworks precautions, Finley said officials may need to take some more proactive steps to prevent such a fiery 4th of July next year.

He said Woodward County fire chiefs, the county commissioners and other officials will discuss steps such as more actively seeking out fireworks violators or even possibly look at trying to ban fireworks in the county.

"On a personal note, it wouldn't hurt my feelings (if fireworks were banned)," Finley said.



EMERGENCY MANAGER TO RECOMMEND BURN BAN

Matt Lehenbauer, Woodward County emergency management director, said after all of the fires July 4 he will be addressing county commissioners with a burn ban option during their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, July 9 at 10 a.m. in the county courthouse.

"I'm sure a number of area counties will do the same," Lehenbauer said.

Fire conditions will be fairly volatile through Friday, he said.  Temperatures will be around 100 degrees with low humidity and next week highs will be around 90 degrees with a one in 3 chance of rain, he said.

Some contributing factors to the area fire danger are the fact that July and August are some of the driest months of the year, temperatures are above average, there's low humidity and a lot of growth from early spring that has dried out, Lehenbauer said.

One of the biggest fires in the region on Thursday was the Eagle City fire, he said. The fire is located 10 miles west and 2 miles north of Watonga. The fire started around 8 p.m. on July 4 and was still going as of Thursday morning, at which time it had stretched to 6 miles wide, Lehenbauer said.

Even though they spent much of the evening fighting local fires themselves, Lehenbauer said, "Woodward County firefighters are on call to provide relief," at the Eagle City fire.  And by 3 p.m. Thursday a Woodward County strike team was sent out to assist at the Blaine County fire, which had grown so serious that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported roadways had to be shut down as fire crews conducted a back burn to try to bring it under control.