Let’s adopt a Texas fire department

Firefighters in Texas are having a really tough year. It’s their worst wildland fire season in decades and there is no relief from the weather in sight. They have had some fatalities and several very serious injuries on fires. We have pointed out some examples of Texas firefighters working on fires wearing little or no personal protective equipment. Sometimes, but not always, this is due to inadequate tax revenue from their citizens, who expect free fire suppression services. In a perfect world, local residents would enact a tax system that would supply their fire departments with enough funds to serve their populations with sufficient equipment and adequate levels of training. However, in some jurisdictions that may not happen in our lifetime.

Let’s adopt a fire department.

ChuckW led us to good idea in his comment in another post. We, the writer and the readers here, should adopt a fire department and send them help.

I will accept nominations of a fire department in Texas that has a significant wildland fire workload, and (1) needs help in the form of wildland personal protective equipment and firefighting equipment, and (2) would wear and use the equipment if they received it. We will select one department and then “beat the drum” among the loyal readers here at Wildfire Today and try to get them some much needed help. Many of us have slightly used, but serviceable, equipment that we would be glad to send to our brother and sister firefighters. I am thinking that we could send them Nomex shirts, Nomex pants, Nomex brush coats, hard hats, safety glasses, hose, nozzles, fireline gear, etc. Maybe we could even arrange for instructors to put on some wildland fire training, pro bono.

We can’t help every fire department, but if we can help just one, we can make a difference.

Nominations should include:

1. Name, shipping address, phone number, and web site (if it exists) of the fire department;
2. Name, phone number, and email address of the chief;
3. The number of wildland fires they worked on between 1-1-2010 and 5-31-2011;
4. The number of firefighters in the department;
5. Description of what they need and why;
6. What size hose do they use and what type of threads? For example, 1″ hose with NPSH threads, 1.5″ hose with NH threads; and size and thread type of your wildland nozzles.
7. If the department receives personal protective equipment, will the firefighters wear it?
8. If someone wants to send a check, how should it be made out, and to what address should it be sent?

The equipment and donations will be sent directly to the fire department. Wildfire Today will not filter or take any portion of them. We will post the contact information of the selected department so that potential donors can ask questions if necessary. The email address will be posted similar to this,” joechief (at) gmail.com”, to reduce the chance of autobots scraping off the address and using it to send spam.

The nominations can be sent to us via the Contact Us page. If we receive enough nominations, the last day for us to receive them will be June 20, 2011.

Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire. View all posts by Bill Gabbert