It’s Oklahoma’s biggest single layoff in a decade.

Just weeks before Christmas, some 800+ people are now without a job after Halliburton announced the closing of their El Reno operation. Out of the 808 employees expected to be laid off, the company’s filing shows that more than a third worked with acids used in the hydraulic fracturing process and nearly a tenth performed cementing work for oil wells.

Jacob Shelburne who lives near El Reno told Oklahoma’s KFOR news that “I actually do have a friend from my home town that did work there,” and that “I know he’s got two or three kids he’s got to take care of. So yeah, that’s pretty horrible.”

El Reno mayor Matt White said that “The way we read the letter was basically they’re shutting down operations. 808, I think, employees will be without jobs. They’re gonna shut that down immediately”.

It’s something White said you can never be prepared for. However, he said the possibility was on the city’s radar, and now fears this will affect multiple parts of the economy.

“They do a lot of shopping in our shops, a lot of eating in our restaurants. It’s going to be traumatic for our sales tax,” he went on to say

For the people who once reported to the El Reno Halliburton every day, White and community members are feeling their pain.

“Christmas is a pretty tough time to do it, but I don’t know that there’s any good time to lose your job,” White said.

El Reno police were at the offices while Halliburton officials made the announcement on Monday.

img: Google maps