Oklahoma has been placed under a national fire advisory as much of the state struggles with unrelenting drought and tinder-dry vegetation capable of igniting and quickly spreading out of control, state forestry officials said Wednesday.
The rare advisory -- and the first for Oklahoma - issued by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho,
is in effect for two weeks and warns residents and fire departments to prepare for potentially severe wildfires.The national center also cautioned that areas in the neighboring states of Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Kansas could be ripe for similar extreme wildfires through February. While only two of Oklahoma's 77 counties are currently under a burn ban, Oklahoma Forestry Services officials cautioned residents Wednesday to "avoid doing anything that can cause a spark."
The ingredients for a potentially disastrous fire outbreak are already in place in the mounds of accumulated limbs, dry brush, leaves and needles from years of ice storms and tornadoes that carpet forest floors.
"The situation we're in with the state of our fuels, drought, dryness of fields, fires become more resistant to control under these conditions," said Mark Goeller, the forestry services fire management chief. "Pine needles, logs, big-diameter woody material ... the things from these natural disasters we've experienced throughout the state, all those fuels are critically dry."
