Wildfire Protection: Texas Style Yall

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Wildfire Protection Texas Style Yall!!
October 22, 2007
James B. Hull, Director Emeritus Texas Forest
Service
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Texas is a BIG state
170 million acres
261,797 Sq. Mi.
885 miles
835 miles
350 miles of Gulf Coast
1200 miles of border with Mexico
23 million Texans
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TFS Legislative Mandate

• Established in 1915
• Education Code, Chapter 88, Subchapter B.
• 88.102, General Duties
• Take any action deemed necessary to prevent and
  extinguish forest fires

• 88.118, Statewide Fire Coordination Center, Added
  1993
• Coordination of the response to each major or
  potentially major wildland fire in the state

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1996-Hull Named State Forester of Texas
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Texas A mighty BIG state to protect from
disaster!
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Texas A mighty BIG state to protect from
disaster!
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TFS Fire Activity - 1996
EL NINO
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LA NINA
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Year after Year Disastrous Fires Continued
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Wildland fire emergency Why Now?
Weather cycle
Population
Changes in land use - Fuels
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Climate Weather Cycle Drought Statistics for
Texas
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Acres Lost to Wildfires (TFS)
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Texas Wildfire Seasons A Threatening Trend
1996 2000 1998 2001 1999 2005
- 2006 2008
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TFS FD Wildland Fires
TFS FD Wildland Fires
Jan. 2005 Sept. 18, 2006
29,141 fires 2,260,240 acres burned 734
homes 1,320 outbuildings 168 vehicles Hundreds of
miles of fence Thousands of cattle 628.1 million
in property losses
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2008 Fire Season
606 structures lost 13,917 structures saved
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Texas Population Trends
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Wildland-Urban Interface
90 of wildfires are caused by people
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Wildland Urban Interface
Cross Plains - December 27, 2005
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Land Use Patterns
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Land Use Patterns
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Land Use Patterns
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Land Use Patterns
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Fuels

• Increase in pine plantations (1 million acres
  since last FIA survey in 1992)
• Changes in land use
• Land fragmentation

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Maryneal
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Big Spring
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Amarillo
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Corpus Christi
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Lives, homes, property lost to wildfire
East Amarillo Complex 907,245 acres
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Midland
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29,141 Wildfires from 1-1-2005 to 9-18-2006
Wildland Fire IS a Rural and Urban Issue!
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• Predictive Services

• Mitigation and Prevention

• Planning and Preparedness

• Local Capacity Building

• Rapid Initial Response

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Predictive Services
www.tamu.edu/ticc
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Fuels
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Current Conditions
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Weather SST Outlook NCEP CFS Forecast Issued 22
June 2008
The CFS ensemble mean (heavy blue line) predicts
ENSO-neutral conditions through Northern
Hemisphere Winter 2009, although
warmer-than-average conditions are evident during
late Summer 2008.
ENSO Neutral for July
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Current Conditions
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TFS AG Program Cooperative Efforts
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• Predictive Services

• Mitigation and Prevention

• Planning and Preparedness

• Local Capacity Building

• Rapid Initial Response

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Mitigation and Prevention

• PREVENTION
• Burn Bans
• Smokey Bear
• Targeted Campaigns
• Firewise Communities
• Communities-at-Risk

90 of wildfires are caused by people
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Mitigation and Prevention

• Wildland Urban Interface
• Training emergency responders
• Identify community hazards
• Community education
• Hazard mitigation

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Southern Fire Risk Assessment

• SFRA model integrates
• Historical weather
• Fire history (ignitions)
• Surface fuels
• Roads
• WUI
• Fire behavior analysis
• Fire effects and suppression effectiveness

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Southern Wildfire Risk Assessment
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• Predictive Services

• Mitigation and Prevention

• Planning and Preparedness

• Local Capacity Building

• Rapid Initial Response

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Planning Preparedness

• Emergency Operations Center
• Supply and equipment caches
• Texas Interagency Coordination Center

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Planning Preparedness
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• Predictive Services

• Mitigation and Prevention

• Planning and Preparedness

• Local Capacity Building

• Rapid Initial Response

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Local Capacity Building

• FD Assistance Programs
• 1975 -Volunteer fire assistance cost shares
• 1978 - Federal excess personal property
• 1988 - Fire safe
• 1995 - VFD vehicle liability insurance
• 1997 - Helping hands
• 2001 - Rural VFD assistance program
• 2001 - Rural VFD insurance program
• 2007 Rural VFD assistance program x 2

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Local Capacity Building

• Volunteer Fire Assistance Cost Shares
• 600,000 / year
• 90 cost share on wildland PPE
• 75 cost share on structural PPE
• Personal protective clothing

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Local Capacity Building

• Federal Excess Personal Property
• Available for use in fire suppression
• Assigned to fire departments as is

AFTER
BEFORE
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Local Capacity Building

• Fire Safe
• 20 to 40 savings
• Structural and wildland protective gear

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Local Capacity Building

• VFD Vehicle Liability Insurance
• 100/300/100 coverage
• 200 per vehicle

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Local Capacity Building

• Helping Hands
• Donated equipment
• Ownership transferred to receiving fire
  department
• Donor relieved of future liability
• Breathing apparatus must be certified

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Rural VFD Insurance Program

• Funding provided from a 2 tax on fireworks sales
• Financial assistance to VFDs for workers
  compensation insurance payments

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Rural VFD Assistance Program
983 fire engines
33,685 sets of protective gear
7,010 pieces of fire equipment
24,012 firefighters trained
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• Predictive Services

• Mitigation and Prevention

• Planning and Preparedness

• Local Capacity Building

• Rapid Initial Response

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Rapid Incident Response

• Wildland fire response
• All risk incident management

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December 27th
Black Tuesday 154 homes lost
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Integrated, cooperative responseLocal fire
departments, state and national responders train
and respond together
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State and National Response System - works both
ways

• 3,994 Personnel Mobilized to TX for 2005-2006
  fire Season
• Texas Lone Star State Incident Management Team,
  dozers and firefighters mobilized to GA, FL, and
  TN this year

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Regional Type III Incident Management Teams

• Nationally certified teams made up of local
  responders
• Carry out functions involving incident
  management, operations, planning, logistics and
  finance
• Capitol Area and San Antonio teams deployed to
  Eagle Pass
• 11 local area personnel joined Texas Forest
  Service Lone Star State IMT on Georgia wildfires

• 5 Regional Type III IMTs
• Amarillo/Lubbock, San Antonio, Houston/Harris
  County, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Capitol Area
  Teams
• Additional teams being formed
• Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Waco, Midland, Odessa,
  El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley

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All Risk Incident Management
Exotic Newcastle
Columbia Shuttle Recovery
Ice Storms 2000
Intense Wildfires
Floods
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All Risk Incident Management
Houston Flood
Hurricane Ivan (Florida)
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TFS All-Risk Incident Management

• Exxon Oil Spill (Corpus Christi) 1992
• Republic of Texas Standoff 1997
• Del Rio, Cuero and San Antonio Floods 1998
• New Braunfels Flood 2000
• Fort Worth Tornado 2000
• Northeast Texas Ice Storm 2000/2001
• Hondo Tornado 2001
• Houston Medical Center 2001
• San Antonio Flood 2002
• Columbia Shuttle Recovery 2003
• Newcastle Disease (El Paso) 2003
• Hurricane Claudette (Port Lavaca) 2003
• Super Bowl XXXVIII 2004
• Major League Baseball All Star Game (Houston)
  2004
• San Antonio Flood 2004
• Hurricane Ivan (Florida) 2004
• Robertson and Brazos County Flood 2004
• Hurricane Katrina (Louisiana) 2005
• Hurricane Rita (Texas) 2005

• El Paso Flooding 2006
• Eagle Pass Tornado 2007
• Big Spring Alon Refinery Explosion 2008
• Tropical Storm Edouard 2008
• FLDS Mass Care 2008
• Hurricane Gustav 2008
• Presidio County Flooding 2008
• Hurricane Ike 2008

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http//texasforestservice.tamu.edu/