Texas County Strike Team Joins Fight Against Flat Tire Grass Fire

The Texas County Fire Strike Team arrived about 1:00 p.m. Tuesday and began operations against the Flat Tire Fire east of Turpin in Beaver County, a blaze the Oklahoma Forestry Service said burned roughly 5,000 acres. State crews and local departments worked alongside Texas County units after an initial request for mutual aid was made at approximately 11:35 a.m.

The strike team brought firefighters and units from Guymon, Texhoma, Goodwell, Hough, Yarbrough, Hardesty and Baker to the scene, and local departments from Booker, Perryton and Follett also assisted, with Seward County firefighters reported on hand by Seward County Fire Chief Andrew Barkley. Oklahoma Forestry Service personnel from Weatherford were on scene directing suppression efforts, constructing control lines and putting out hot areas into Wednesday morning when OFS reported the fire was about 25 percent contained.

Guymon Fire Chief Grant Wadley described the fuel conditions facing crews, saying, "This was a large fire with a great deal of dry fuels to burn." Leader & Times reporting summarized OFS and Wadley’s assessment that current weather and high fuel loads made containment difficult as crews worked to improve control lines and mop up burned areas.

Traffic on U.S. Highway 83 was closed between U.S. Highway 64 in Turpin and U.S. Highway 412 during the firefight; the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported those lanes were reopened just before 9 p.m. Tuesday. Social media updates and photo posts documented active lines and several hot spots along the Beaver River that firefighters continued to monitor, with photos credited to Tye Frantz, assistant fire chief at Hardesty.

Regional broadcasters offered differing size and containment estimates. KFDA/NewsChannel10 reported two grass fires near Turpin at roughly 2,000 acres and 300 acres and said those fires were 85 percent contained by Thursday morning, a figure that conflicts with the Oklahoma Forestry Service’s 5,000-acre estimate for the Flat Tire Fire and OFS’s 25 percent containment figure reported Wednesday morning. OFS identified the Flat Tire Fire as the first sizable fire in northwest Oklahoma this season and called it the largest of four ongoing fires, the others reported in Sequoyah, Pottawatomie and Adair counties.

The multi-county, multi-state response from Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas departments highlights coordination across jurisdictional lines: named participants in Texas County, neighboring counties and Kansas crews were cited in media and social updates. Remaining verification items include final acreage and containment figures from OFS, confirmation of personnel and equipment counts from the Texas County strike team, and an official cause determination from fire investigators. Reporters noted those follow-ups are needed to finalize the incident record for Beaver County’s Flat Tire Fire of February 11, 2026.