Okla. Seeks Disaster Declaration

As California and Nevada battle floods and brace for more as a result of a second storm, a rash of drought-fed wildfires is raging across Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry is urging people to avoid any kind of open flame, even so much as throwing a cigarette out a car window.

"We will overcome this challenge," says Henry, who has asked President Bush to quickly approve a federal disaster declaration.

Oklahoma has called on firefighters from across the South to help battle the blazes, which were predicted over the weekend. Fire crews from Alabama and Tennessee were on the job by Sunday, and more crews are expected Monday from Florida and North Carolina.

Officials are warning that the dry, gusty conditions and extreme fire danger will continue.

Grassfires raged across the dry southern prairie, burning homes in Oklahoma City, threatening several homes in Guthrie, Okla., destroying homes in two small towns in Texas, and creating patchworks of flame as burning embers are blown by the gusting winds.

Dozens of fires burned Sunday across Oklahoma as the wind gusts reached 50 mph. In Texas, more than 20 fires sprang up, including a 22,400-acre blaze that threatened 200 homes near Carbon, about 125 miles west of Dallas.

Crews flying over northern and western Texas to assess the damage Sunday afternoon reported the tiny communities of Ringgold and Kokomo, together home to about 125 people, had essentially been wiped out by flames.

In New Mexico, just across the Texas line, two dozen elderly residents were moved out of a nursing home in Hobbs, and a casino and community college in the town of 29,000 were evacuated.

"Today has been extremely intense," said Fire Maj. Brian Stanaland in Oklahoma City, where fire crews battled at least 15 flareups as the flames snaked in long lines through dry, mostly open areas. "I think it's maybe starting to take its toll on our department."

High winds, record-high temperatures and drought-like conditions across much of the region have pushed the fire danger to critical levels. Wildfires in Oklahoma and Texas last week ravaged more than 50,000 acres, destroyed nearly 100 homes and businesses and killed four people.

Sunday, power lines arced and sparked one grass fire in northeast Oklahoma City. While firefighters battled that blaze, high winds tossed material from a nearby construction site into power lines, causing the debris to burn before it landed on a nearby nursing home.

"You basically had flying, flaming debris," Stanaland said. "Luckily, we were already on the scene putting out the fires when it happened so we were able to put it out."

A fire near Wainwright in Muskogee County charred several thousand acres and was at least a mile wide, but no injuries or structure fires were reported.

In New Mexico, one fire grew to 40,000 to 50,000 acres along a 20-mile line, and four structures burned in Hobbs, where residents — including 27 at a nursing home — evacuated the western side of the city.

In Carbon, Texas, at least three homes and several barns were destroyed Sunday afternoon and area residents were evacuated.

"We just took up money for the folks in Cross Plains at church this morning, never thinking it would be us in just three hours," said Mallory Fagan, who waited in nearby Eastland with her daughter and 15 dogs they rounded up from the family's dog rescue.

Carbon is just northeast of Cross Plains, where more than 90 homes and a church were destroyed in a raging grass fire last week.