BLAINE COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – Thousands of acres of Oklahoma land are now scorched and the fire’s been burning since last Thursday.
Blaine County’s Emergency Management Director, Jim Shelton told KFOR the flames sparked up about four miles west of Hitchcock around 5 p.m. July 14.
The firefighters are battling not only the flames, but also heat exhaustion.
Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief is feeding firefighters battling the Blaine County wildfire for the next couple of days.
One firefighter tells News 4 that having these meals available is essential to putting out this wildfire.
“That keeps us in the game. We don’t have food, we can’t get our guys in here rehabbed, get them back to conditioning, get them back to go back and fight the fire,” said Perry Scheffler, Blaine County Emergency Management and Hitchcock firefighter.
Since the fire started, the Oklahoma Red Cross and Salvation Army’s emergency disaster relief team have been providing lunch and dinner to all of the brave men and women working to put the fire out.
Now, Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief is taking over providing around 800 meals for today and tomorrow.
“We’re here to feed them… We’ve got people from Kingfisher, people from Oklahoma City, people from Canada and all over that will descend on our place and help, and we have we have great volunteers that just want to show Christ’s love to the to the folks out here, especially to our first responders,” said Don Williams, Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief Director.
Those people are volunteering their time.
“We don’t have the cost for a motel room, and we don’t pay the volunteers. So, all the donations that come in help the community that we’re serving,” said Williams.
Some of the meals Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief is providing are walking tacos, BBQ, a ton of snacks and endless water and Gatorade.
The community has come together and donated all of this food, water and Gatorade to help keep the first responders energized, safe and ready to fight.
“They burn lots of energy out there and it’s very physical out there. And the heat makes it even much, much worse… Just having the water, the Gatorade, the food, the areas to come in here. They have been grateful to us to get our guys rehabbed, just to get them back in there so they can go back and continue to stay in there longer,” said Scheffler.
The fire has burned around 10,000 acres, and right now there are over 100 firefighters working to put out the wildfire.
“It gets in the canyons and it runs along the canyon walls and we can’t get there. Air drops is the only thing it really will touch, but they can’t put it out. They can only compress it or slow it down. We just cannot get to it,” said Scheffler.
Scheffler says the heat has caused them to work half as fast as they normally would.
Blaine County Emergency Management tells us the fire is now about 50% contained.
To find out how to make a donation, visit okdisasterhelp.org.