22-03-2025
Residents of Nottingham mourn the loss of their homes, make plans to rebuild
As wildfires roared into southwest Stillwater March 14, residents in the Nottingham Addition, those in the original evacuation zone, were unaware of the real danger.
The wildfire burned 25 homes in Nottingham, according to Payne County assessors, a number representing half the neighborhood. The path the fires took seemed almost random, with one neighbor saying it looked like someone used a 'blowtorch' channeled in one direction.
Neighbors didn't live close together, but they did watch out for each other. Often, homes are called by their previous owners, such as 'the Terrill house' or the 'Tree house.'
That Friday evening, residents didn't receive fire alerts on their phones and some didn't know their homes burned until later. The neighborhood Facebook page, which had previously had few posts, exploded with neighbors wanting information.
Live on screen
Stillwater author Lisa Bonge and her family had just unloaded $300 worth of groceries into their kitchen when they saw the flames in the field 200 yards behind their home. She was the first one in the neighborhood to call 911 after smelling smoke.
Even after grabbing their six dogs, lockbox and laptops and fleeing, Bonge told the News Press she still didn't realize how serious it was. Her family was glued to their phones and the TV, waiting for any word.
Then News 9 storm chasers Val and Amy Castor drove into their neighborhood and seemingly randomly pulled into their driveway past their mailbox, and the family knew.
Flames still burned, and they could clearly see their house was gone. The Castors continued to focus their camera on the scene, waiting to go live for the 10:30 p.m. newscast.
Lisa said her entire book inventory of 200 books she'd authored burned in the fires, along with many family mementos.
A team of emergency responders arrived Wednesday to help residents sift through the ashes to salvage what they could. Among the items found, Lisa was able to recover her grandma's bronze baby shoe and a jewelry dish her son created.
On one of her trips to visit the spot where her home burned, she noticed several pages of a larger work called 'Full Dark, No Stars' by her favorite author, Stephen King.
'I'm framing this,' Lisa said. 'The last paragraph is about a female author recovering from a traumatic experience.'
Lisa said she's already writing notes about her experience – and when she's finished her current project and has had enough time to process her loss, will probably write a fiction story incorporating those memories.
'His angel
watching over him'
Dan Byrd lost his wife Joy Marie Valeriano Byrd, a physician's assistant at Oklahoma State University, about three years ago to cancer.
Before she passed, she worried about her golden retriever, Samson, and who would take care of him. Dan assured her he would.
At her funeral, a pre-recorded song sung by Joy Marie spoke of being Dan's and Samson's 'angel looking over you from heaven.'
Byrd, who works for Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, wasn't at home at the time of the fire. His son, Brandon, was home and was the last resident in the neighborhood to be evacuated, but Samson wasn't with him. Firefighters told Brandon they'd leave the door open so Samson could evacuate on his own.
Later, neighbors found the dog near the home, unharmed.
'There were no burn marks, he was breathing OK, his paws weren't burned,' Dan said. 'It's a miracle. Joy was his angel watching over him. The way my son described it, you couldn't breathe, you couldn't see – and here's Samson, walking around. He had to have some intervention from God and Joy in order to get through that.'
Couple mourns
history, heirlooms lost
Kel Pickens, 75, and wife Carolyn West Meyer, 72, said they've experienced waves of grief since losing their home to the wildfires, but even at this stage of life, they're planning to rebuild.
Meyer and Pickens, both educators, collaborated on multiple projects, including educational albums, cassettes, books and operettas that two educational companies published and distributed widely in the 1980s and 1990s.
They are well known for their children's radio show, KIDS Radio Show, which aired on a local FM station for 15 years. The couple also produced a television show that featured the Stillwater Animal Welfare and Humane Society, helping animals find their forever homes.
All of their original recordings – plus their collection of vinyls, CDs and cassettes – were lost to the fire, not to mention Pickens' 1975 911S black Porsche.
Seeing their home burning was like 'a punch to the face,' Pickens said, adding that it looked like a scene from Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
With the help of a police officer, Meyer, who is also an author, was able to grab the couple's laptops, flash drives, a folder with their trust information and a stack of journals from which she's written multiple books about the two's beloved dogs and their travels together as a family. They also saved their Australian Shepherd, Beau and their cat, Mandy.
'You can feel pretty good and be laughing about something you think about, but then it goes down into a valley from that peak, and you get depressed again,' Meyer said.
Pickens compared it to remembering a lost one after a funeral.
'Then you start realizing, 'What I'm going through is kind of PTSD in a way,'' Pickens said.
He said using humor – even dark humor – has helped. They joked that former arguments over his hoarding and her refusal to refurnish the living room are no longer issues for them. It's like starting over as newlyweds.
Some of the families refused offers for GoFundMe pages, opting instead to let others who have less receive support. Most, if not all, have good insurance – unlike some across Stillwater.
Each family told the News Press they plan to rebuild and are deciding where they will live in the meantime.
'You start planning for the future, and that helps you now,' Pickens said.
'We're going to rise from the ashes,' Meyer said.
'Like a phoenix,' Pickens added.
