Firefighters Ask City to Create Wildfire Unit
The Austin Firefighters Association asked for wildfire resources at a City Council work session. Photo courtesy flickr.com/msakrThe head of the Austin Firefighters Association is asking the City Council to spend $2 million to create a wildfire division for the Fire Department.
Half of that money would be spent on reducing the risk of wildfires through fuel mitigation, which includes cutting down brush, elevating the canopies of trees and conducting prescribed burns.
“I do want to be very clear with you,” AFA President Bob Nicks told council members at a work session today. “There has been no substantive investment this year in what is probably the most important area, and that is fuel mitigation.”
Nicks had already asked the council for $10 million in its next bond package to build a fire station on Loop 360. That request was not included in the $385 million bond package that will be put before voters in November.
