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Fast-Moving Wildfire Kills 1, Burns At Least 20 Homes In Oklahoma

By Neda Farshbaf and Joe Sutton CNN (CNN) — One person is dead and about 1,000 people have evacuated their homes because of a wildfire in Logan County, Ok...
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CNN

(CNN) —

One person is dead and about 1,000 people have evacuated their homes because of a wildfire in Logan County, Oklahoma, a fire official said.

The official, Guthrie Fire Chief Eric Harlow, also said at least 150 homes are in danger.

The blaze that started as a controlled burn quickly got out of hand and turned into a fast-moving wildfire.It was one of several fires to break out amid unseasonably high temperatures and windy conditions in the state.

The victim was a 56-year-old man who failed to evacuate when requested, said Guthrie Fire Chief Eric Harlow.

Guthrie is the county seat.

The Guthrie blaze was about four miles long and up to a mile wide and was burning a largely rural area.

Harlow put the fire’s size at between 3,000 to 4,000 acres.

“It’s growing so fast it’s pretty hard to estimate,” Stephens said. “There are a lot of cedar trees, they have a lot of oil in them and they just explode.”

The fire was the largest of several in the state that are being fueled by temperatures in the 90s and high winds, said Keli Cain, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

“They got three ingredients for a bad fire: high temperatures, high winds and low humidity,” said Daryl Williams with the National Weather Service in Norman.

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