Almost 200 firefighters from across Texas, including 80 from the Metroplex, left for California Tuesday morning to join the effort to contain wildfires there. A total of 170 firefighters left from Love Field, Houston and San Antonio.
August 24, the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System was activated to provide help to California. Since then, 330 firefighters from the state have spent 14 day deployments in California.
"We're proud to represent Texas and TIFMAS," says Kyle Mills, deputy chief of Frisco Fire Department and regional coordinator for TIFMAS. "In turn, we know California would do the same for us."
Southwest Airlines provided charter flights to bring firefighters home and bring the next group to California. The flight out of Love Field was scheduled to stop in Amarillo to pick up additional crew members.
"That's a great thing about the fire service: it's pretty interchangeable. We all work well with each other, especially when you get in the heat of battle, you form a bond, a brother and sister-hood that works well together," Mills says."They're well trained, they're qualified to be out there. They'll do a phenomenal job when they get out there. They've been doing a great job."
Firefighters say they train the same way and have group training in Texas to prepare for large responses to wildfires.
"I've worked locally and throughout the state but nothing on the California-scale," says David Knox, a Fort Worth firefighter who was on the flight from Love Field. "We're used to working with other agencies, though. We all mesh and work well together."
The flight from Love Field is scheduled to land in Sacramento. Mills will be working at California State Operations Center to coordinate the response. Firefighters from Texas have been assigned to two complexes.
Frisco Fire Department also provided a truck to patrol fire lines and extinguish fires.
Dallas Fire Rescue has had 13 members of its wildland team in California. Nine returned Monday night; six more left on the flight from Love Field Tuesday morning.
