Photo by SHAWN YORKS/GDH

Below: A dust devil is seen moving directly over U.S. Highway 64 at Mile 23 on Thursday afternoon. Fire crews from Guymon were monitoring hot spots which had rekindled from Wednesday's fire northwest of Guymon. The dust devil is black because it is moving over the burn zone. The dust devil moved from south to north and passed near a fire crew monitoring the hot spots.

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By SHAWN YORKS
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With all the talk of burn bans and drought, one of the fire department's worst fears came true on Wednesday. A massive wildfire fueled by dry earth, low humidity and strong winds scorched an estimated 6,000 acres in an area northwest and west of Guymon on Wednesday, sparking panic among some Goodwell residents after Amarillo television media reported Goodwell was being asked to evacuate.
In the end, Goodwell did not need to be evacuated.
"That was never really a threat," said Texas County Sheriff Arnold Peoples. "Somebody jumped the gun on that. It was never any closer than six miles north of Goodwell. It stayed north of the Beaver River."
Peoples said four homes were evacuated north of Highway 64. The fire burned right up to a home on Mile 23, "But fire crews and graders did an excellent job keeping the home protected," Peoples said.
He said a handful of livestock and 25 miles of barbed wire fence were lost.
Firefighters were still putting out hot spots early this morning, and the blaze re-ignited at 9:30 a.m. Four trucks and two maintainers had knocked the fire out by 11:30.
"We're going to get in a helicopter and look over it from the air. We don't know how big the fire actually was," said Guymon Fire Chief Clark Purdy.
"We know there were downed power lines, but can't confirm if that's what started it."
Peoples confirmed that an oilfield chemical truck clipped a guy wire 2-and-a-half miles north of Highway 64 and a half mile east of Mile 22, and pulled down an electrical line.
Tri-County Electric Cooperative said that four of its power poles were burned in the blaze and four accounts in the Powell Corner off Highway 64 were without power from 11:22 p.m. Wednesday to 1:05 a.m. Thursday.
"In the larger scheme of things, this damage is relatively minor," said Tri-County Electric Assistant Manager of Customer Service Zac Perkins. "We give our sympathies to those whose lands and property were damaged in the fire."
Purdy estimated the fire to be about three miles east-to-west and 9-10 miles north to south.
The fire was first reported shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday and quickly spread from southwest to northeast in an area northeast from County Road O and Mile 22 — about three miles north of Highway 64.
At the time of the fire, the temperature was 107 degrees, dewpoint 5 degrees and wind from the southwest gusting near 50 mph.
"Wind was a key factor," Purdy said.
And it was a wind shift during the evening that caused the biggest headache for firefighters. A cold front moved across the county and winds shifted, pushing the fire due south between Mile 22 and Mile 25.
"We had the fire almost out and down to one large tree we were trying to knock down," Purdy said. "The wind shifted and picked up, and all the yuccas still burning inside the black then blew into the un-burned area south of (Highway) 64."
Highway 64 was closed for several hours between Mile 22 and Mile 25.
The good news was nobody was hurt by the fire.
Firefighters from Guymon, Goodwell, Yarbrough, Texhoma, Hooker, Keyes, Kansas units from Elkhart and Rolla, and Texas units from Spearman and Stratford helped quell the blaze.
Peoples said that erosion will make things "Look like the dirty 30s" when the wind picks up. And not only that, the fire is a lesson in why fireworks have been banned in the county this year.
"This is a prime example of why I am deathly afraid of these fireworks this year," Peoples said.