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May 4, 2008 8:39 am US/Central
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Moisture, Logistics Keeping Texas Wildfires Down
So far this year Texas wildfires have scorched about half the
acres that burned in 2006 when 12 people and thousands of livestock
died.
Thus far in 2008, just one person has died and management of
wildfire breakouts across the state has improved thanks to the
availability of more effective tools, forestry officials said.
Adequate resources are dispatched when weather conditions in a
particular part of the state indicate wildfires could erupt, and
news outlets are getting more regular updates.
About 7,450 wildfires have burned 1.1 million acres and
destroyed 167 homes.
Officials with the Texas Forest Service said it's not so much
that more is being done to deal with wildfires this year as it is a
far different fire season meteorologically and logistically.
Two years ago, getting fire-fighting resources from outside
Texas wasn't as easy, severely hampering efforts to attack
wildfires on the ground and in the air.
''There was competition all across the southern region,'' said
Mark Stanford, chief of fire operations for the Texas Forest
Service. ''No one is going to send a lot of help if they think next
week they're going to have large fires themselves.''
But even that wouldn't have helped battle the nation's worst
single-day wildfire event March 12, 2006 when wind gusts up to
60 mph fueled firestorms across much of the Panhandle. The windy
conditions prevented planes and helicopters from dropping water or
retardant on the fires.
This year the forest service has stepped up efforts to keep
media apprised of wildfires and heightened threat levels. In 2006,
information about those fires was at times difficult to collect, in
part because there were so many and their status often changed
rapidly.
Also, conditions this year are far different.
''This year we're primarily dealing with abundant grass,'' he
said. ''While (the wildfires) are still incredibly dangerous, the
thresholds'' of moisture are higher. In 2006, ''not only was the
grass dry but the moisture in the living vegetation, the brush was
below critical thresholds.''
Rain over much of the state last year brought good grass stands,
which began to dry out after precipitation dropped off in
September. Combined with a La Nina weather pattern, this year's low
humidities and high winds have led to many days of extreme and
critical fire danger across Texas.
This year through April, the number of acres and homes lost
continued to mount. The fire region that will continue to be at
greatest risk until about mid-June is West Texas. Lightning can
start those fires and heavier fuel sources like thicker branches
that have dried out can make fires harder to fight.
Fortunately, there are seasonal afternoon showers that move
across the rough terrain, which if they come about can help
mitigate the wildfire threat, fire officials said.
On Friday, fire crews continued to work a large fire in West
Texas the Huckabee Fire in Pecos County, about 30 miles southeast
of Fort Stockton. The 50,000 acre blaze had threaten two natural
gas facilities that produce more than $1 million of natural gas a
day. Both facilities appear out of danger, said Jeanne Eastham, a
spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service.
Rains in some parts of Texas in recent weeks allowed some
counties to lift their burn bans; 104 of Texas' 254 counties
remained under burn bans Thursday, down from about 230 a month ago.
When wildfires began raging in Central and West Texas in late
2005 and well into 2006, much of the state had slipped into various
levels of drought lasting many months.
More than 2.25 million acres burned and hundreds of homes were
lost.
Even without much rain statewide since September, this year
began with higher moisture levels than in early 2006, when
volunteer fire departments in March tried to hold the line but
winds whipped flames across open Panhandle fields, leaving behind a
blackened landscape dotted by thousands of burned fence posts.
In the first 12 hours, 900,000 acres burned.
''That's the only fire I've ever been associated with that I
would truly call a perfect storm,'' said Stanford who's been
fighting fires for 29 years. ''Human action was not going to affect
the course of that fire. You could defend towns but offensively you
aren't going to do anything to it.''
A few days later, Gov. Rick Perry flew over the region and
pledged to push legislators for more money for rural firefighting
needs. In 2007, lawmakers doubled to $30 million the amount of
grant money available to the departments (there are 40,000
volunteer firefighters in 1,800 volunteer departments) for training
and equipment.
Also, the forest service's budget was increased from $45 million
in 2007 to $56 million in 2008, and included appropriations tied to
the Texas Wildfire Protection Plan.
But state officials are disappointed that federal dollars aren't
picking up a bigger share of the tab. The Federal Emergency
Management Agency covers 75 percent of the state's expenses for use
of federal resources aircraft, equipment, support personnel and
firefighters to fight the fires since March 14, but none of the
$20.5 million spent by local and state governments before that date
this year.
''We're stuck with (costs)'' from Jan. 1 to March 14, said
Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Perry's office.
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