Travis County Commissioners Court
January 17, 2006
Item s 4 & 5
Number 4 -- consider and take appropriate action regarding the prohibition of outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County. And people we did have a little bit of rain yesterday, didn't we?
>> this is pete baldwin, Travis County emergency management coordinator. Unfortunately we didn't get anything near what they had at first projected. It was at least nice to feel a little moisture. But our conditions are still extremely dangerous. Last night about 11:30, there was a 30-acre fire sparked off of hamilton pool road. They are still out there this morning in mopup. We are not sure what the cause of it was. When I get that I will let you know on that. But we are still under the dangerous conditions, we are under a red flag warning today, I want to clarify last week someone asked exactly what a red flag warning meant. I went back and checked my note to make sure, but that is basically the -- they measure winds at 20-foot heights, not at ground level because of obstructions, but any time when winds are above 25 miles per hour, at 20-foot heights and relative humidities are below 25%. So any time that you see that red flag, that's what that means. So --
>> to a layman it heaps that conditions are most favorable to a fire being started either intentionally or accidentally?
>> yes, the red flag warning means basically that the low humidity, high winds, too dangerous to burn. So a quick background. We started collecting data from both the city of Austin and all of our fire departments and the sheriff's office on the number of runs that we are making, everything that -- I -- let me just put it this way. Our latest data that we were able to get was January 6th, about 10 days ago, but we already run a combined total of 144 grass fires for the first six days of January. According to this, we ismmented the welding -- implemented the welding issue, both Austin fire department and amr were dispatched, each have received a couple of calls regarding or asking questions about. Travis County fire marshals received numerous calls asking about a perm, but so far -- about a permit, but so far no permits issued under that welding or disaster declaration.
>> [indiscernible]
>> the recommendation is that we leave the outdoor burning ban in effect.
>> okay.
>> so by taking no action, actually it stays in effect.
>> yes, sir.
>> pete, I guess the court should note, too, that the -- that the -- since the government declared a -- a state-wide emergency ban, we are entitled to access federal funds, but you have to do some serious and detailed record keeping and we have shared the requirements with the esd's and others who may have the ability to file claims in the future. But pretty much have to document what you have done, and maybe get reimbursed, maybe not.
>> depends on, when you get into fire suppression grants, there are a number of different categories, but basically what that does is open a lot of doors for assistance to departments, as far as getting equipment repaired in a timely manner. Getting equipment replaced, and -- we have urged all of our departments to make sure that they are documenting all costs associated with it. In the event that there is a chance that they can seek reimbursement for a specific cost on it, yes, sir.
>> also, is there -- I against opportunities that have been expressed to the local news media on the -- I guess the penalties and fines for -- for not obeying the burn bans. The reason why I asked that question was because I looked into the news that I hear that -- persons are not aware of the burning ban, fact as a result of that it ends up burning and destroying property, things like that. Igniting fires and -- people say well I wasn't aware. The news media actually telling the community or telling the public that, yes it is a burning ban in place and if you violate the burning ban, this is the penalty. Is that also being discussed? Because you know I知 trying to -- I知 trying to make sure that what we do here by -- by embracing the burning ban is to also on the educational side, where folks would not -- well, would really know exactly what's going on here. And then will not burn trash or not do those kind of things that will spark fire.
>> Commissioner, the answer is that they all have that information, provided to them each week in our updates, in our press releases to them. As we know, with our order, it's at the bottom of the order. They usually do what's up at the top, that is that we do have a burn ban in place. A lot of times they don't get down to the actual penalties. But all of that information has been disseminated and is constantly giving back to it, yes.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> I知 going to be real cautious that somehow they think that the news media, god bless them, they are doing their best to get the information out. But when I was in television, we were always told that the average viewer sees two newscasts a week. Which depressed me greatly considering how much work that I was putting in on a daily basis, but it's true. We have different viewing habits. When you look in your car, you are driving home, you see other people in cars, they are not watching tv either. So I think a lot of our commute patterns have changed and you know life gets complicated. I think we need to thank them for getting the information out, but we can't just simply think that just because it's been on tv that somehow people have the same viewing habits and there are a lot of people that don't have access, they don't have cable. Whatever. It's like we have to go beyond that. It almost sounds like in some of these more rural areas, some of the more scattered out areas, we may need to go door to door and put leaflets on their front door in two languages to make sure that whomever is living there gets more of a notification. And not think that just because it goes out on the magic airwaves that somehow it's getting to the people that really need to hear about this. Are we going to be able to -- I know we keep for purposes of star flight, very specific records related to the firefighting component because we wanted to know what part that was, just for our own planning purposes. Have we been working with the star flight folks about documenting for the purposes of this? Because certainly in terms of gasoline and fuel, I should say, time, energy, et cetera, where they were using the [indiscernible] they were very much a part of the fire suppression effort, thankfully.
>> we keep extremely good records on all of their flights, we would have that if that became available to us. I want to comment very quickly on your comments about the media. We have had very good cooperation from our media. We have a good working relationship with them. We have worked putting this out, day in, day out. But it's exactly as you said. A lot of people don't follow the media much like I do. I watch a lot of media, I watch a lot of news. But they are -- our weather personnel are putting it on every weather forecast, on the radio, tv, we are attempting to get that out, you have seen the -- the texdot, Texas department of transportation signs on 35 and ben white and everywhere that says state-wide burn ban in effect. There's been an unprecedented effort to get the word out as far as danger of the entire state of Texas is in right now. Beyond just not reading a -- reading a headline or ever turning on a radio or ever seeing a tv other than going door to door I知 not sure how else, how much more could be accomplished because they have done an excellent job.
>> well, we get about 99% compliance, though.
>> yes, sir.
>> the problem is there are -- there are accidents, there are practices that turn -- that may have been safe during wetter times that really are unsafe now because of dry conditions. Everybody needs to be extra careful. The simple fact of the matter is if you can keep from using fire outside, do so. And don't -- don't throw cigarette butts out, don't do the other things that we have expressly prohibited. And we are not the only county in Texas doing it. Numerous others have. Virtually all of the ones in central Texas. When we did our action last week on the combustible materials, most of the counties in central Texas wanted to know exactly what we had done because they had a similar problem and one or two take a sidestep not only to work with the residents, but also to put in place safeguards. 99% of the people comply, it's just the other 1% that we really try to get out words that actions are taken if you violate the law, penalty, in the end our goal is to get 100% compliance and safe practices basically.
>> yes, sir. If we can get the public to -- to do 100% compliant, we will be much safer. But I知 glad that you brought up something because there are actual accidents that occur just due to weather. Dry lightning strikes. High winds will cause power lines to start swaying and they can arc and blow transformers, there are things that happen. But we can eliminate the things that we have control over and that is trying to get the word out to the public to be safe. Then we can deal with those accidents.
>> there was a -- I was one of the 51,000 people in memorial stadium dkr Texas memorial stadium on Sunday for the big celebration for the longhorns and at the very end they blew off fireworks. And for a moment people were kind of turning because some folks knew who I was, aren't we in the middle of a burn ban? So people were asking about it. I had to say well we are in the city of Austin, they clearly would have had to get a permit. And do it the right way. But it was an interesting moment in terms of blowing off fireworks in the middle of the city.
>> those are our questions about whether they are entitled to some reimbursement or grant or loan program to contact either the state of Texas --
>> contact our office.
>> or Travis County emergency services office.
>> right.
>> number 5?
>> yes. 5. Consider and take appropriate action on order declaring local disaster to address the potential threat of wildfires due to drought and adverse weather conditions and banning the use of combustible materials, including fireworks, in outdoor environments, pursuant to section 418.108 of the government code.
>> it would be my recommendation this be stepped for another seven days. We are discussing with the county attorneys about using some of that language that we put in there regarding welding into our outdoor burning ban. We will come back with you on that. But since these are ongoing issues, we would have -- we could bring it back under either one of those items. But our recommendation would be that this be extended for another week.
>> okay. So by law in number 4, we can extend it 30 days. By law in five we can extend it seven days at a time.
>> yes? So the current ban -- did it expire last Friday? The current one? Or will it expire this coming Friday?
>> we are going two -- the disaster declaration is Tuesday to Tuesday.
>> being on.
>> recommendation is that we renew it in number 5. And I move that we do so.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? And just a word or two, there are things that you cannot do which the law covers. There are a whole lot of things that you should not do because circumstances dictate, basically.
>> yes, sir.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Somebody will get me an order. Okay.
>> thank you very much, mr. Baldwin, we will have both of these on next week?
>> yes, sir.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 8:13 AM