Central High School baseball game played as fire burns in the background
On the evening of March 20, 2023, Jennifer Sanner captured some unbelievable photos and video at one of her twin son's high school baseball games as an active wildfire was ongoing in the background in what some would call "the most Oklahoma thing ever." The game was between Bray-Doyle High School and Central High School in the small town of Marlow, Oklahoma. Marlow is located in southern Oklahoma about an hour south-southwest of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After a brief delay in the game, officials decided to continue to play the game despite the ongoing fire in the fields behind the baseball stadium, because it was determined the fire was far enough away that everyone was still safe at the field, but they continued to monitor it. The local fire department did eventually get the fire out.
According to a fireman from the local volunteer fire department, the fire started after a landowner was trying to feed their cattle and became stuck in the extremely saturated pasture. As the farmer was trying to get the truck unstuck from the mud, the exhaust from the pickup caught the grass on fire and resulted in what local fire officials are calling a small fire. Due to the pasture being as wet as it was, the high-clearance vehicles they would normally use to fight the fire were not able to go through the field to put out the fire, so a farm tractor would later be brought in to help extinguish the fire. We reached out to the Chief of the Central High Volunteer Fire Department for a comment on the fire, but he stated he had no further comment on the small fire.
Jennifer and others at the baseball field mentioned hearing explosions in the background which fire officials have said were fuel tanks and fires on the pickup truck that was on fire. Thankfully, there were no reported injuries in connection with this fire.
Photo captured by Jennifer Stanner