Two Guymon firefighters hurt when brush unit rolls on U.S. 136
Two Guymon firefighters were hurt when their brush unit rolled on U.S. 136 during a dry-lightning fire run, as crews battled multiple fires across the Panhandle.
Two Guymon firefighters were injured Thursday afternoon while rushing to a lightning-caused grass fire, a crash that knocked a brush unit out of service during one of the region’s most dangerous fire days this season.
The unit was traveling north of Guymon on U.S. Highway 136, about six miles south of the Kansas line, when the rollover happened around 4:20 p.m. Chief Grant Wadley said the front tire caught the right shoulder edge of the highway, the truck overcorrected as water shifted in the tank, and the brush unit rolled one and a half times before landing upside down in the east ditch.
Both firefighters self-extricated and called for help. Guymon paramedics and coworkers treated them and took both to Memorial Hospital of Texas County in Guymon. The driver was treated and released with minor injuries, while the passenger was admitted in stable condition with chest and back injuries.
The brush unit had been headed to a large grass fire south of Rolla, Kansas, while multiple fires were also being reported in Texas County at the same time. Oklahoma Highway Patrol is investigating the crash with assistance from the Texas County Sheriff’s Office and Texas County commissioners.
The injury comes at a difficult moment for local fire protection. The Guymon Fire Department says it covers 525 square miles and serves about 15,000 residents with 47 firefighters, a span of territory that can stretch resources even before an apparatus is taken out of service. Firefighters and the Oklahoma Forestry Service remained on some fires Friday, showing that the threat did not end when the sun went down.
The broader weather picture was worse across the Oklahoma Panhandle, southwest Kansas and the Texas Panhandle. A fire near Canyon, Texas, was reported at 14,000 acres and prompted mandatory evacuations in Randall County, while Kansas emergency management reported at least seven active fires near Rolla in Morton County after a dry thunderstorm moved through the area. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management had also been staging suppression resources in Guymon during periods of critical fire weather, underscoring how quickly dry lightning can turn rural highways and open grassland into an emergency corridor.
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