Kyle firefighters headed to California to help

Kyle firefighters are among some 200 from 23 Texas counties heading to California to help with the deadly wildfires.

Also going are 50 fire engines, the Texas Forest Service says.

As of Monday, at least 29 people were dead and more than 6,700 structures had been destroyed. Roughly 250,000 Californians have been forced to leave their homes.

“When the call came into Texas this summer to aid our California neighbors, Texas A&M Forest Service and TIFMAS were able to render aid. Nearly 100 Texas firefighters were of service. This is what mutual aid is all about and, here in Texas, we do it well so California asked the Texans to come back and help out again,” said Tom Boggus, Texas A&M Forest Service director.

On Saturday, California emergency officials contacted the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TEDM) who then called Texas A&M Forest Service to request help via the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) program. TIFMAS is the fire and rescue framework that provides wildfire incident support. Texas A&M Forest Service helps coordinate wildland fire suppression efforts throughout Texas with local fire departments.

 “This is another solid example of Texas firefighters stepping up to help out. This is the largest mobilization of Texas firefighting resources to another state to fight wildland fires,” said Mark Stanford, fire chief and associate director at Texas A&M Forest Service. “TFS will send five engines but a majority of the personnel and engines are coming from municipal fire departments all across Texas.”

 Texas counties that are mobilizing resources include: Bexar, Brazos, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Fort Bend, Galveston, Gregg, Harris, Hays, Hutchinson, Lamar, Montgomery, Parker, Potter, Somervell, Tarrant, Taylor, Tom Green, Travis, Walker, Wichita and Williamson.

 Nacogdoches Fire Chief Keith Kiplinger, who is also the TIFMAS state coordinator, said that these out-of-state assignments allow municipal firefighters to gain valuable experience that may not occur in their daily firefighting duties.

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

A total of 27 Texas A&M Forest Service personnel, a strike team and five additional fire engines from Brownwood, Childress, Smithville, Mineral Wells and Wolforth have already left. This makes a total of 55 Texas fire engines available for th effort.