Road grader is overrun by a wildfire in Oklahoma; reporters shoot video and save the operator

Bill Gabbert
April 6, 2016

In case you missed it in Tuesday’s article about the wildfires in northwest Oklahoma, a road grader operator had a VERY, VERY close call trying to put in a control line around a fire. Here’s what we wrote yesterday:

grader overrun by fire — Screen shot from News9 video of road grader being overrun by wildfire in Oklahoma.

I just watched a replay on NEWS9.com of a road grader that had been putting in fire line get stuck as it tried to go up a slope to get on a road. The operator spent several seconds trying to get the machinery unstuck as the fire bore down. The flames were actually impinging on the grader as the operator jumped out the door and ran over to a reporter’s vehicle and got inside. By then the flames were pouring over the hood of that vehicle as the reporter quickly backed away, as if he was driving away from a tornado, he said. Apparently the grader operator was not injured.