2011 Wildfires Helping to Fight 2012 Wildfires
Photo by KUT News.The two wildfires that are blazing across North Texas have charred over 3,000 acres in Palo Pinto County, about 75 miles west of Fort Worth. Officials and aircraft kept a third fire from spreading in the Possum Kingdom Lake area.
Mary Hicks is the Fire Prevention Special Projects Coordinator with the Texas Forest Service agency. She says that fighting the Central Texas wildfires last September has taught them the value of training locals about how the agency’s emergency systems.
“We’ve seen in the past, a lot of times it’s pretty chaotic when we get on the scene,” Hicks said, “the more locals understand the incident command system, the easier it is to actually fight the fire and save lives and keep the firemen safe as well.”
On Sunday, Gov. Rick Perry announced he sent two helicopters to help 14 local and volunteer fire departments battle the blaze in Palo Pinto County. So far, at least 18 homes have been threatened by the fires, but no structural damages, evacuations or injuries have been reported.
