The National Guard Training facility at Camp Bowie has been activated as one of the 4 main Staging Areas for the statewide wildfire response this weekend due to the forecast of critical fire danger in West Texas.
Sixteen fire engines from departments across the state are being stationed throughout West Texas in preparation for potentially-devastating wildfire conditions expected Sunday.
The engines — brush trucks specifically designed to battle wildfires — are being activated through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS), a statewide agreement that allows communities to call upon each other during times of need. Four command vehicles also are being activated.
The Brownwood TIFMAS engine and two firefighters from the Brownwood Fire Department were sent to join a strike team at the Midland staging area Saturday morning according to Emily Gore Public Health Preparedness Coordinator of the Brownwood/Brown County Health Department. The strike team positioned at Camp Bowie (pictured above) consists of vehicles and firefighters from the Oak Hill, Lake Travis, and Austin Fire Departments which are all primarily from around the Austin area Gore said.
On Sunday, high impact fire weather that could directly threaten public safety is predicted for much of the state including all areas along and west of the I-35 corridor. Wind speeds are expected to reach 35 to 45 mph with gusts up to 60 mph, which could push wildfires more than 100 yards — or about the length of a football field — in a minute’s time.
Gov. Rick Perry proactively ordered the TIFMAS activation based on the extreme forecast.
The trucks and command vehicles will be split into four strike teams and pre-positioned in Brownwood, Mineral Wells, Lubbock and Midland. A second and third wave of strike teams is at the ready, should they be needed.
“TIFMAS gives us ability to shift resources from one part of the state to the other without depleting anything in the hot zone,” said Joe Florentino, TIFMAS state coordinator. “If things light up on Sunday, we’ll be ready.”
An Austin-area strike team will go to Brownwood, while a Denton County team will head to Mineral Wells. The other two strike teams will be made up of new engines presented to departments less than two weeks ago through a TIFMAS grant program run by Texas Forest Service.
Those eight new engines — hailing from Big Spring, Brownwood, Georgetown, Lewisville, Mission, Nacogdoches, Flower Mound and Cedar Hill — will be split between Lubbock and Midland.
“It’s Texans helping Texans,” Florentino said. “When you think about how big the state is and all the resources … five years ago, we would’ve had no way of doing this.”
Saturday marks the third activation for the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System. It previously was activated during Hurricane Ike and on April 9, 2009, when nearly two dozen wildfires raced across the state, burning more than 150,000 acres including two entire towns in Montague County.
Similar fire weather conditions are predicted for this Sunday, according to Texas Forest Service fire officials and National Weather Service meteorologists.
Texas Forestry Service has been reporting wildfires across the state throughout the weekend which include those near our area, such as a 500 acre fire in Cisco (Eastland County) and a 4500 acre fire on the James River Road (Mason County).
