By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com
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Three Cleburne firefighters saw quite a bit of Texas last week, having been called up to monitor and fight wildfires throughout the state.
Assistant Chief Keith Scarbrough, Lt. Stephen Bicknell and firefighter Eric Thomas departed Cleburne about 2 p.m. on March 22 to help battle a wildfire near Fort Davis.
They, and firefighters from other Texas departments they rendezvoused with, were participating in the TIFMAS, or Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System.
“No statewide fire fighting force exists per se,” Cleburne Fire Chief Clint Ishmael said. “Except for some resources that the Texas Forest Service has.”
Senate Bill 11, enacted in 2007, created TIFMAS, which acts under the auspice of the Texas Forest Service.
In a nutshell, the program, on a strictly voluntary basis, mobilizes equipment and manpower from local fire departments to battle large-scale disasters such as fires, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.
This is the second time Cleburne firefighters have participated in the TIFMAS program, having deployed to Jack County for 36 hours last year.
The Fort Davis fire, later determined to have started when a flat tire sparked a grass fire, consumed more than 1,000 acres, Scarbrough said.
The Cleburne crew missed that action.
“That was a six to seven hour drive,” Scarbrough said. “We stopped to eat and got a call telling us that fire was under control, and that we were being diverted to Midland.
There they met up with other fire departments forming a task force of two strike teams ready to deploy anywhere in the state as needed.
Cleburne firefighters joined a strike force that also included firefighters from the Red Oak, Midlothian and Ferris departments. The second team included members of the Flower Mound, Lewisville, Cedar Hill and Brownwood departments.
Among the equipment members of the department and forest service brought along were eight brush trucks, two command vehicles, three bulldozer crews, three helicopters and an air tanker airplane, Scarbrough said.
“All the conditions were right for major fires in the middle western part of Texas last week,” Scarbrough said. “Including low humidity and high winds.”
The National Weather Service, much in the way they monitor conditions for the possibility of extreme weather, also maintain a division that monitors fire behavior and critical conditions to predict severe wildland fire danger.
“That’s information local departments monitor,” Scarbrough said. “The commissioners courts also use that when they decide to enact burn bans. A lot of people think, ‘Well, it just rained. Why can’t they lift the burn ban?’
“But, if the conditions are right, low humidity and high winds, it can rain and just an hour later be as dry as it was before.”
The firefighters arrived in Midland, and waited.
“The mission [of TIFMAS] is to go into an area that’s under danger and protect homes and property,” Scarbrough said. “We go in and support the local fire stations in that area, but they’re still in charge.”
Fortunately, no wildfires broke out.
“All the conditions [for fires] were right, and we were all ready to go, but it didn’t happen,” Scarbrough said. “I thought it was dry here [Johnson County], but Cleburne looks like a tropical rain forest compared to Midland.
The one fire that broke out during the Cleburne crew’s time there, a small grass fire in a median, was handled by the Midland Fire Department, Scarbrough said.
Another task force, that Cleburne firefighters encountered in Mineral Wells, were called up to fight fires in other parts of the state, Scarbrough said.
The Cleburne crew remained in Midland until being released to return home on Friday.
“It’s a good system,” Scarbrough said. “Because it sets up a mutual aid system for a statewide fire department on a need-be basis wherever it’s needed. Which would also be available to Cleburne and Johnson County if we ever need it here.
“It sounds expensive, to move people around like that, but it’s actually cheaper. The forestry service doesn’t need people full time all year because most of the year there’s not a huge fire danger.”
The use of Cleburne firefighters and equipment comes at no cost to the city, Ishmael and Scarbrough said.
The state reimburses Cleburne and other participating departments for gas, payroll and other costs, both said.
“Even though there were no fires this time, it’s better to have people mobilized and ready to go in the areas under danger than to not have them there,” Scarbrough said.
