Ordway Residents Watch As Town Burns
ORDWAY – It was a losing battle for firefighters in Crowley County Tuesday afternoon, as they battled high winds that fueled a 6,500 acre grassland fire. The town of Ordway was evacuated and all residents could do is wait and hope. Several homes have burned in the fire and the Ordway airport was a total loss.
“When I left the house, the back door was on fire and so was my computer room,” says Thomas Bishop. His daughter was in the kitchen when she saw the flames coming toward the home. “I don’t have a home I’ll be sleeping in the ashes.” He says he’ll stay with friends until he can decide what he needs to do next.
The fire started in a field off Highway 96 abouttwo miles from the town of Ordway. “I knew they couldn’t control it,” says Andy Medina. “When the fire people were already healing out here, it was 1/3rd away across the field, about 320 acres, it went in six minutes.”
He thinks the fire started after a farmer did a control burn on his land. “Now the crops are gone and it’s only dry weeds and in some cases the farms aren’t disking around the field and there is nothing to stop the fire.”
Many of the power poles have been take out by the fire and it could be days before power is turned back on.
