FORT DAVIS, Texas — As some parts of the Texas panhandle and West Texas battle wildfires, some local Central Texas fire departments are there to lend a helping hand.
Killeen Fire, Temple Fire and Hewitt Fire all have two-man crews deployed to different parts of the state as part of the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS.) Waco Fire did send a crew, but as of Thursday they had already returned home. The TIFMAS program helps mobilize systems, crews and aid to make statewide use of local resources.
The dynamic team from Hewitt Fire Department, Casey Garcia and Lt. Corey LeBourgeois, were sent to Fort Davis where they are trying to help mitigate the Solar Park fire.
"At this time, we're just patrolling fire lines trying to keep it inside the box," Garcia said.
As of 5 p.m. Mar. 2, the fire is at 2,816 acres and is at 85% containment, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service Incident Viewer.
Central Texas doesn't typically see fire danger concerns in winter or spring, but LeBourgeois said wildfires this time of the year isn't unusual in West Texas.
"This is kind of normal, different parts of the state kind of dry out with the wintertime a lot faster than we usually see in Central Texas," he said.
The crew from Hewitt is working alongside more than a dozen other departments across the state and the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Garcia has been on four other deployments with the TIFMAS program. He said this trip to west Texas is different than other missions he has been on, and it's taught him a lot.
"I've done most of them up in the panhandle area," he said. "Carbon Fire was on that last year. This is a little different because of the terrain. Most of the stuff that I've been with has been up in the Panhandle so it's fertile plains, flat ground, a lot of grass. Here the terrain is completely different. It's pretty taxing, but you have to go about it with a little bit different tactics but learning a lot up here and really enjoyed being able to help."
Garcia and LeBourgeois said the deployments also help them bring the experience and knowledge back to Central Texas for when they get the call back at home.
"We use the knowledge that we gain from them and the experience we gain on these fires, and we could take it back home and kind of teach our guys and maybe our neighboring departments," LeBourgeois added. "Kind of spread our wealth, our training and our knowledge to them and make events closer to home a little bit more manageable."
The TIFMAS crews usually are deployed for a minimum of seven days, but can be working as long as 21 days.