We can’t afford to lose nobody as dry as it is right now. We got to have all hands on deck.
Those were the words of Michael Batton, the district fire coordinator with the Texas Forest Service out of Jacksonville, discussing the implications of firefighters working in the extreme Texas heat.
Here is a link to a video report in which Mr. Batton further elaborates on fighting fire under the current conditions in Texas.
The engine in question is a VFD engine. The firefighter on the truck is a volunteer as well. Like Bill has pointed out before, TFS is not a government agency. The TFS uses coordinators to manage the VFD’s on large incidents, but the IC usually stays with a local FD chief who is qualified as at least an NWCG IC4 with NIMS 300 and 400. As a side note, the large fire in Fort Davis in April used a county judge and a DPS officer as ICs with disasterous effects.
Gotta luv that new Texas FS denim PPE, especially the hi-tec flip-flop boots. All hands on deck !
if that’s an agency engine, what is the operator doing in jeans and a t-shirt? is it just us contractors that need nomex? (that’s a rhetorical question, by the way) If they don’t want “to lose nobody”, a little nomex is a step in the right direction.