Travis County Commissioners Court
March 27, 2007
Item 3
Due to technical difficulties some caption files may be incomplete.
3. Approve proclamation recognizing March 24 through March 31, 2007 as "wildfire awareness week" in Travis County.
>> it reads whereas the week of March 24th through March 31st 2007 is wild fair awareness week, a state-wide campaign to inform Texas residents about how to protect themselves while living in neighborhoods near wild land areas, whereas Travis County is a diverse place to work and resecret with a diverse ecology, the vast appeal has led to development and the result is an ever increasing wild land urban interface, whereas Travis County has been identified at -- at high risk as high risk for severe wildfires base of the regions radical topography, volatile plant species and long-term drought conditions. Whereas in 2006 wildfires in Texas took 21 lives, destroying homes and burned 2.26 million acres resulting in $556 million in property damage whereas the Texas forest service, Travis County and the city of Austin jointly recognized the existence of the danger posed to lives and property due to our wild land urban interface and whereas Travis County urges its residents to become fire wise. By performing basic modifications, entire communities can drastically reduce their risk of wildfire. To learn more, residents may contact their local fire department for the Travis County, fire marshal's office at 854-4621. Now therefore be it resolved that we in the Travis County Commissioners court have proclaimed March 24th through March 31st, 2007 as wildfire awareness week in Travis County. And encourage all residents of Travis County to become fire wise. I move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, judge. Brad beachham with the Travis County fire marshal's office with me, chief don smith from fire control, assistants chief michaelot from westlake, oak hill janet faulknerson from the state forest service. Chief elliott is our chair, he would like to tell you what's going on go on this weekend.
>> first welcome. Thank you all very much. I would like to thank the judge and Commissioners for the time that you have been giving us and the support that you have been giving the county esd's over the years. This Saturday, March 31st at 6:20 and 7 -- 620 and 71 at the lowe's there's going to be a wildfire awareness showcase, there's going to be about six fire departments with -- with firefighting equipment. Children to go through the fire trucks, star flight arriving between 10:00 and 11:00, we would like to invite you personally to come out. Of course the general public will be recommend. The forest service is hosting some other events around Travis County at home depot. Austin fire department will be -- will be attending to those -- those events. Also, thanks to star flight and the Austin Travis County e.m.s. For -- for participating in this event. So --
>> we had those fires three or four weeks ago, right?
>> yes, sir, judge.
>> in central Texas. It's amazing how drought conditions and a little wind can really greatly increase the risk of wildfire.
>> and that -- judge, if I may enumerate, that was a perfect storm type of day in which we had resources in hays county already committed, Williamson county resources already committed, then we began to have fires here, we had already shared with our neighbors in the appropriate way that it put us in a unique situation. Had we had another fire, as tragic as that was -- also.
>> again I want to thank you very much for the support in working with -- with Travis County, they have been wonderful for me over the years, the wildfire awareness week as I hope that you know did start here in Travis County and is now a state-wide event. The Texas forest service right now is working with legislation to try to get the Texas wildfire protection plan funded, this will increase the Texas forest service's ability to stage and use in state resources rather than having count on out of state resources like we had during 2005 and 2006. We hope Travis County can support that with legislation. The Texas forest service is responsible for supporting wild land firefighting throughout the state. I want to thank you very much for your support on all of the events that we are trying to do in -- in educating the public, which is the -- I believe the key. Obviously we want to prevent as many fires from starting but if we can't prevent them we want them prepared.
>> thank you very much, that's important.
>> the number on the Texas wild fair --
>> have you all taken the position about -- about all of the fireworks and urbanized unincorporated bills. I think colin berry filed that one.
>> I don't know the position on that. I do know that the Texas forest service works with legislation on a previous bill. I believe it was from 2000, 2001, where they collect additional sales tax revenue and that supports local fire departments.
>> that's great.
>> don smith, fire chief Travis County fire patrol esd number 4. Wanted to bring you up to speed on that when the wildfire struck in north Texas, in the late part of 2005. Forest service was there working on those fires and word went out that they needed additional help and Travis County was the first community to send a task force there to assist in that fight in north Texas and one of the things as it is judge was reading off the -- off the paper there 2000 or 2.2 million-acres of land that burned in the state of Texas is a lot of land, those 700 plus homes that were lost, that's a lot of homes along with the lives. But it does have a big impact on the economy in the state of Texas. There are over 10,000 head of livestock lost in those fires in north Texas, also. So -- so there's an impact that we don't necessarily always see up front but it has a long-term effect on us, Travis County has been very proactive working with forest service and fire wise programs and I know in the western side of Travis County we have got neighbors that are working with forest service to become fire-wise neighborhoods. It's an education process. I want to thank each of you for your support because as you support our local fire departments we can support the forest service and I think we do have a positive impact on fires across the state not only in Travis County. So thank you very much.
>> how long did it take us to get that location to help.
>> from the time that we got the call, we heard, if I recall, I think we had 8 vehicles there within 12 hours. So we loaded up -- had everybody packed and moved out and were on the scene working at the scene within 12 hours of the call.
>> did anybody up there ask why we were the first. There had to have been so many around them. 12 hours is a long time to wait whenever you have a fire going. Hopefully they picked up the phone and asked their next door neighbor, I mean, if somebody got here from several hundred miles away, kind of sounds on odd that we would be the first out of county help for them.
>> it does. Mutual aid is kind of like the local thing where you call your neighbors to come over and assist. All of those community up there were committed into that firefighting operation, but they were overwhelmed by the size of the fire and the spread. In other words, just the total mass of it so wide in coverage, they didn't have enough -- they are correct that we embarrassed people in that direction that could have sent units over sooner. We saw the need, we worked with forest service before. That call went out and said we really need assistance and we mobilized to go take care of that with him while still sustaining our support here in Travis County in case we had something happen.
>> Commissioner, if I may, I was at c tech was actually one of the ones who took that call. What happens as the chief was saying, all of those resources in the panhandle were committed to their operational level, dem, the state merchant management center sent out the call for help. I called chief smith because he was the crc officer today, johnny on the spot. We coordinated resources, sent the appropriate resources that Travis County could send. We certainly applaud them for that. Yes, sir they were in the a bind in the panhandle.
>> how do we deal with given the fact that we would have sent the crew or several crews up there. By example, we really were left a little -- a little understaffed if you will in the event that we were to have had another incident in Travis County. What is the -- what is the -- I can see where you can really get second-guessed on that. You have sent somebody several hundred miles, 12 hours away. Somebody may ask you about why you will do that.
>> under our crc program, we have actually three task forces that are set up across the county. We can commit task forces to move in and out, typically go to Williamson county, hays county, we might go to burnet, bastrop, caldwell, somewhere in there, we are going to maintain staffing back here, we can't commit all of our units because we have that commit here. Commitment here. As we have sent units out of county to assist, we still maintain stuff back. If a call comes in, you can't send them because you have to maintain, you have to tell them that up front so they can make other phone calls.
>> thank you.
>> let's become fire-wise. All in favor of the re b okay?
>> all right. Let's go down in front.
>> [inaudible - no mic]
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 8:00 AM