Okla. Firefighter's Truck Stolen While Battling House Fire

When a house fire strikes in Fort Gibson, the volunteer fire department goes to work to keep somebody from losing their home.

After a blaze Saturday night that led into early Sunday, it was something else that came up missing: a 1993 GMC pickup, owned by firefighter Virgil Walters, stolen from the department's parking lot.

"Virgil said, 'OK, who's messing with me,'" Fire Chief Larry Dale Cooper said. "He was looking around and he said, 'My truck's gone.' People tell us we should lock our doors, but when there's a cardiac arrest or a fire and we get called out, you get in a hurry to get wherever you're going."

The pickup was found about 9 p.m. Sunday east of Tahlequah by a Cherokee County deputy. Walters said it was "50 to 75 feet" off the road in a wooded area. The only items missing were the pickup's keys and Walters' fire department beeper.

"And it was out of gas," he said. "There's no damage to it, as far as I can tell. I looked all over and didn't see anything."

Charlie's Wrecker Services brought the pickup back to Walters.

"I really appreciate all the looking around people were doing," Walters said. "There were lots of people that were helping look for it."

Walters said that the thief knew the fire station was empty. The fire -- a blaze in an empty house on South Scott Street that was so hot it melted siding on a house next door -- was visible from the station.

"The fire we were at was just, oh, three or four blocks from the station," Walters said. "You could see the flames from the station."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Copyright 2012 - Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.