Firefighters trying to contain a wildfire that has ravaged a large part of Oklahoma and Kansas since last week received an unexpected help from a rare snowfall on Easter Sunday.
The snowfall, which began on Saturday evening, had already provided about an inch of snow to both affected states. However, officials were still unsure when the firefighting teams would be able to contain the ongoing fire.
Oklahoma Forestry Services spokeswoman Melanie Karns explained that the teams are trying to utilize the falling rain and snow in order to get control of the situation, but that it might take more than just a little bit of precipitation to put out the heavier fuel sources for the fire.
The wildfire began in Oklahoma on Tuesday but quickly spread to other areas in the north.
Karns said that the wildfire was about 36 percent contained in portions of Oklahoma and Kansas on Saturday and was eventually brought to 45 percent contained by Sunday afternoon.
The so-called Anderson Creek Fire is considered to be one of the largest wildfires ever to take place in the United States, according to the Kansas Forestry Service. So far it has scorched as much as 400,000 acres of land both in Oklahoma and Kansas.
In Kansas, the wildfire was particularly devastating to the county of Barber, which is located about 100 miles southwest of Wichita. Firefighters have been struggling to contain the fire in the county. Karns said that the wildfire in Barber County is 31 percent contained.
Members of the Kansas Air National Guard have also joined in on efforts to control the spread of the wildfire. They used four Black Hawk helicopters specially designed with water buckets to fly overhead and douse the fire in areas that were unreachable by firefighters on the ground.
"This is real rough country out here, and the Black Hawks are helping us get water into areas we had difficulty getting to," Kansas Forest Service spokeswoman Shawna Hartman said.
She said that large portions of affected areas, such as drainages, gullies and deep canyons, are filled with red cedar trees and prairie grasses that serve as heavy fuels for the fire, allowing the wildfire to catch on to other areas as well.
The firefighters have already dumped as much as 50,000 gallons of water on the wildfire as of Saturday.
