TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — A Washington County family is blaming gas lines running above their property as the primary reason that a wildfire destroyed their home with a close tie to their past.
NewsChannel 8 spoke with Jesse Larimore last weekend, who told us his Circle Mountain home was caught ina wildfire that authorities said burned thousands of acres and destroyed seven other homes.
He said the Circle Mountain home had meant a lot to his wife as her childhood home, and they had been fixing it up to potentially live in after retirement.
"[The fire] just tore through those [gas] lines and spread all across our land and ultimately burned our house down," Larimore told NewsChannel 8 last week.
NewsChannel 8 asked Larimore Saturday if he was still just as certain those lines had contributed to a majority of the blaze.
"I'm convinced it was a large factor in the amount of loss that we had," said Larimore.
Larimore said he and his family had been hoping to clean up the property sooner rather than later, but the actively burning gas from the lines over the past several days made it difficult.
He said that, as of Saturday, the flames had gone out, but he and his family took action prior to that by calling a number listed next to abandoned gas wells near his property.
"When I talked to the supervisor, he said that everything was normal, it was nothing to worry about," said Larimore.
Larimore shared a text message with NewsChannel 8, dated Wednesday, that he said came after that conversation. The text message said that a burned poly pipe and one of the "units" from the well site had been removed. The text went on to suggest that work would continue the next day.
Larimore said when he and his wife visited the site after that text message, they noticed that a majority of the piping had been removed from the site, only leaving behind some evidence that it had ever been there in the first place.
"All the lines are removed now," said Larimore. "There's no evidence...like I said...other than the indention."
NewsChannel 8 reached out to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission on Larimore's behalf to see what else could be done in this case.
A spokesperson said there's no paperwork for the abandoned gas wells in question, which essentially makes responsibility on the matter difficult to determine. The spokesperson did confirm that the wells were on Osage tribal property and connected Larimore with a contact from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"I know that they are very concerned about it and they are actively looking into it for us," said Larimore.
Larimore said he's unsure if his family will rebuild their home on the property or clean it up.
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April 09, 2023 at 10:25AM
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Washington County family blames gas lines for home loss - KTUL
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