Texas firefighters lend Calif. a hand

Crews head west to relieve those battling wildfires

Hundreds of Texas firefighters — including crews from Houston-area departments — are headed to California to fight raging wildfires that have claimed dozens of lives, destroyed thousands of buildings and displaced approximately a quarter-million residents.

Officials with the Texas A&M Forest Service, which coordinates the state’s Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System, known as TIFMAS, said roughly 200 firefighters from more than 40 departments across 23 counties were driving to California to help fight fires across the state.

“This is what mutual aid is all about,” said Tom Boggus, director of the Texas A&M Forest Service. “And here in Texas, we do it well, so California asked the Texans to come back and help out again.”

Among the firefighters headed to California were first responders from Baytown, Galveston, New Waverly, Montgomery County and other area departments.

Galveston Fire Chief Mike Wisko said he sent six firefighters in two brush trucks. Their mission would be to relieve California firefighters who have been battling the blazes for several days.

“That will give (California departments) a chance to get their guys back to local cities and get refreshed,” he said. “Honestly, they’re in the middle of their fire season now. So … what we’re giving them is an opportunity to get those guys back and get them ready for the next one.”

Baytown Fire Department Operations Chief Victor Medrano said his department had dispatched four firefighters in a TIFMAS truck.

“They need the assistance, and we’re able to afford the manpower right now,” Medrano said. “That’s pretty much what we do. We help each other out.”

Nacogdoches Fire Chief Keith Kiplinger, who is also the TIF-

MAS state coordinator, said that these out-of-state assignments allow local firefighters to train and gain experience they might not otherwise get during their regular duties.

“The training and experience that our firefighters receive will better enable us to serve Texans at home,” Kiplinger said in a news release. “We are rotating these assignments among various departments around the state to give as many firefighters additional experience.”

In Montgomery County, the Porter, Needham and North Montgomery County fire departments have also sent firefighters. In a news release, Montgomery County Fire Marshal Jimmy Williams called the deployment “unprecedented.”

Montgomery County firefighters will initially deploy for 14 days to the Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles, Williams said. He said firefighters will be reassigned as needed.

There were at least eight different wildfires blazing in California on Monday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the national mobilization of resources for wildland fires and other incidents throughout the United States.

The two most-infamous blazes — the Woolsey Fire in Southern California and the Camp Fire in Northern California — have so far left at least 31 people dead. More than 200 more are missing. Aided by dry vegetation and strong Santa Ana winds, the fires had burned at least 325 square miles by Monday.