As drought conditions continue in the state, local fire departments have their hands full responding to grass fires.
However, it’s volunteer fire departments that say their trucks, that mostly come used, take the brunt of the heat.
“The smallest spark could create a grass fire that turns into a 1-mile or larger grass fire,” said Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson with the Oklahoma City Fire Department.
The dangerous heat has firefighters in our state responding to a record number of grass fire calls.
“We actually pulled data back to 2010 and not a single July in that time frame approached the 324 mark that we just saw,” said Fulkerson.
“As of July 20, 2022, Oklahoma was ranked fourth in the nation for wildland fires,” said Sheri Nickel, the Administrative Director for the Oklahoma State Firefighters Association.