"Most of the firefighters in that area are volunteer," said Sen. Casey Murdock, whose district contains the largest fires. "They've left their job to go do this."
In fact, most fire departments in Oklahoma are entirely volunteer — around 81%. Another 10% are staffed mostly by volunteers. Volunteer-heavy departments are far more common in rural counties, where wildland fires tend to occur.
"These wildfires, more times than not, they're not taking off in Woodward or in Beaver proper or Guymon proper," Murdock said. "It's out in rural Oklahoma… and those local volunteer firefighters are first on the scene."
In Beaver and Harper Counties, where the Ranger Road fire has burned hundreds of thousands of acres, 100% of the firefighters are volunteers. Woodward and Texas Counties have some career firefighters in their larger cities, but the counties are still mostly rural volunteer departments.
And even in cities like Woodward, they depend on volunteers from nearby communities for large incidents like this. The city had about 40 of its own firefighters respond to the blaze, including some volunteers.
"But then our surrounding county volunteer fire departments responded immediately, and then surrounding counties too, with strike teams," said Woodward Fire Marshal Marcus Stephenson.
Officials said at least 200 people responded to the fire. Although about 4,000 people were evacuated from Woodward on Tuesday, they were able to return to unburned homes within a few hours.
Stephenson said the extra help prevented devastation in neighborhoods.
"Without the many departments we had here, this wouldn't have got stopped," Stephenson said. "Six trucks couldn't do this. I don't have a count, but I would not be surprised if we had well over 100 trucks. So we all count on each other for help."
Four firefighters have been reported injured in this week's fires.
"I think the best thing that this Capitol can do is make sure those volunteer firefighters are well funded, and not just in disaster years — in slow years," Murdock said. "Because it's in the slow years and the slow times that they are fixing their equipment, and they've got to get their equipment ready so that when this happens, they're ready to roll."
At least one measure aims to increase incentives for most volunteer firefighters this legislative session.
While volunteers do not receive wages, they are eligible for a pension through the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System. Under current statute, the pension starts at $75 a month for retirees with 10-14 years of volunteer firefighting service and maxes out at $300 for people with 25 or more years of service.
Senate Bill 432 by Avery Frix, R-Muskogee, would change that benefits structure so that a retired volunteer would receive a monthly pension of $10 per year of service, capped at 30 years.
Murdock pointed out wider societal issues that make it harder for people to volunteer, even if they want to. The cost of living has rapidly outpaced wage growth, meaning most Oklahoma families need two incomes to stay afloat. That means everybody is taking on more work, both at home and outside.
And those obligations don't pause when a fire springs up.
"Say they put it out right at this moment, they got to go to work in the morning," Murdock said. "Say they don't get it out right now. They get it out at midnight tonight. They got to go to work in the morning after fighting fires all night long. That's a tough job."
Anna Pope contributed to this report.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
