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Wildfires

Nine homes burn, more threatened in parched Oklahoma

John Bacon
USA TODAY
An aerial of the Sportsman Fire in Longtown on Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma on March 20, 2017.

At least nine homes were destroyed and scores more remained evacuated or threatened Tuesday after a wildfire that started in an abandoned house burned more than 1.5 square miles in drought-stricken western Oklahoma.

The state already has faced record-setting wildfire damage for the month of March and is bracing for what could be a long, hot summer.

George Geissler, director of Oklahoma Forestry Sevices, said the fire started near the hamlet of Longtown in Pittsburg County and quickly spread into Haskell County. The blaze had scorched more than 1,000 acres and was less than 20% contained Monday, he said.

More than 250 firefighters from Forestry Services and several local fire departments were combating the blaze. Air tankers were dropping water from nearby Lake Eufaula.

"We had a little bit of an increase in humidity, and a few percentage points can make a huge difference to firefighters on the ground," Geissler told USA TODAY.

Highway 9 Fire Chief Danny Choate told Tulsa's Fox23 that one firefighter suffered smoke inhalation and two evacuees were hospitalized. Choate said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

"The two houses that burned that started it ... have been abandoned for years," Choate said. "Somebody had to be down there doing something."

U.S. sees furious start to the wildfire season

Oklahoma's fire woes have been fueled by drought conditions that now encompass three-quarters of the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Warm, dry, breezy weather will bring ideal conditions for fires to spread in Oklahoma several days this week, the National Weather Service predicted.

Wildfires have already charred millions of acres across the U.S. so far this year, with total acreage the highest in more than a decade, according to spokeswoman Jessica Gardetto of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Many of the blazes have been massive grass fires in Oklahoma and Kansas, which have already set records for  number of acres burned in the month of March, Gardetto added.

Winters are historically dry and windy in Oklahoma, making dormant vegetation ripe for fires. Geissler said fire issues usually ease in spring but crank up again as summer grinds on. More than 1.6 million acres have burned so far this year, Geissler said. That's an area larger than Delaware.

"2017 has started off as a historic year in number of fires and acres burned," forestry spokeswoman Michelle Finch-Walker said. "When things get brown and dry, we start seeing fire in Oklahoma."

Contributing: Doyle Rice

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