By Trish Choate
The Abilene Reporter-News
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A small army of federal workers and firefighting equipment have converged on Texas to battle wildfires like those burning in the Big Country.
Monday in the Lone Star State, 925 federal workers and 123 pieces of federal equipment — trucks, bulldozers and aircraft — were fighting blazes in a historic wildfire season.
“Do we wait until the big fire happens to call them? No,” said Gary Lacox, a 38year veteran of the Texas Forest Service.
State officials make sure their federal helpers are in position and poised for action beforehand.
But before calling in federal aid, Texas officials followed their usual routine of reviewing weather patterns and fuel conditions for the coming weeks, he said.
They gauged whether wildfires could rage beyond the control of local and state resources, said Lacox, fire administration department head.
This wildfire season’s conditions are creating a fearsome incubator for range fires: ample brush and trees gone tinderboxdry, drought, dry air, and high winds.
“There’s never been one like what we’ve got right now as far as the combination of things coming together,” Lacox said.
The combination is “causing fires to become very active and very difficult to put out,” he said.
Texas reported 22 large fires and more than 1 million acres scorched, according to the National Interagency Fire Center’s Tuesday report.
The conditions necessitated summoning U.S. personnel from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Fish andWildlifeService,theNational Park Service and the National Weather Service.
Most of them — 717 — came from the U.S. Forest Service.
The Bureau of Land Management was a far second with 74 people and 17 pieces of equipment.
The bulk of the manpower and equipment is focused in West Texas and North Texas.
Nearly 600 federal workers and 219 pieces of equipment were deployed to those areas Monday.
State officials don’t request high levels of aid from the federal government lightly. “In the state of Texas, disasters are handled at the lowest possible level of government,” Lacox said.
That means the local fire department for wildfires, he said. A local department requests help from surrounding departments if a wildfire is too much, he said. If mutual aid still won’t be enough, local fire officials turn to the state.
Then the state notifies the Texas Forest Service, Lacox said.
Monday, the Texas Forest Service supplied 283 of its own people, as well as 90 pieces of equipment to West Texas and North Texas.
Private resources also were in play Monday across the state, providing 135 pieces of equipment and 34 people, according to the Texas Forest Service.
Many aircraft fighting fires are owned privately and under public contract, Lacox said.
Every morning, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, evaluates needs before assigning national assets like aircraft to fight wildfires.
Two weeks ago, five of seven air tankers on duty, which drop water or fire retardant, were in Texas fighting the Swenson Fire, Lacox said.
“And we’re still fighting this fire,” he said.
Among the aircraft in Texas are four special C-130s that can drop 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant in less than five seconds, according to the Air Force and the Texas Forest Service.
The military set up a tanker base at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene for the special aircraft, called Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems. The U.S. Forest Service owns the aircraft.
Copyright 2011 The E.W. Scripps Company
All Rights Reserved