Brownwood Fire Department received a new class 3 brush truck from the Texas Forest Service (TFS) Wednesday as a part of the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid Service (TIFMAS).
Fire Chief Del Albright and Assistant Chief Grady Shuey drove to College Station to take delivery of the brush truck. New to Brownwood Fire Department, the truck is a 1992 model that has had $50,000 worth of restoration completed and is being given at no cost to the department other than the vehicle be shared during times of need and manned by BFD firefighters when the need arises in fires or other disasters across the state.
The truck (pictured above) is one of first three that are being awarded to three departments across the state, Brownwood being the first. These trucks were donated to TFS by the US Forest Service and refurbished by TFS.
The style of the truck has a higher clearance which allows it to carry more water and it is a four man truck, which is twice as many occupants as the first TIFMAS truck BFD received in 2011. Albright stated that the gift of the truck is part of the State of Texas’ effort to build the mutual aid network.
Albright explained that TIFMAS was developed in 2005 when the Federal Emergency Management Agency mandated that every state have a mutual aid system. Florida and California, because of their hurricanes and earthquakes respectively, have had mutual aid systems for many years. Texas was one of the first, after these two states, to get the mutual aid program off the ground.
The first TIFMAS truck that BFD received has already seen several deployments, including the wildfires in Bastrop and Possum Kingdom in 2011. These TIFMAS trucks are considered state assets and can be called to any emergency throughout the state of Texas along with the BFD crew members to man it.
According to Albright, TFS is working to establish a new TFS task force headquarters which will be stationed at Camp Bowie in the near future, hopefully by next summer. The taskforce will have a crew of its own and have assets including a dozer and brush trucks which will be used in the TIFMAS program.
Photo contributed.
