Volunteer firefighters turned away in Bastrop; officials say they lacked equipment, training
By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
www.drudgereport.com
Published: 9:28 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011David Avary and Ryan Smith said they drove all the way from Odessa to help, only to be sent home.
Don Perry came in from San Antonio, with the same result. Days later, he's still steaming.
The three firefighters were among dozens, perhaps hundreds, who answered the call for volunteers to help battle one of Texas' most destructive wildfires in decades — and went home empty-handed and, in many cases, unhappy.
In what may be the biggest public glitch so far in the extensive emergency effort, state and local officials Thursday detailed for the first time why they turned away the help as the fires raged.
"We may have had some of the world's finest firefighters showing up, but if they weren't properly qualified or trained and had no equipment, we had no choice," said Mike Fisher, Bastrop County's emergency management director.
"I hate to tell anybody, 'We don't need you,' but we absolutely didn't want to get anyone hurt."
At the same time, other local officials said many of the self-dispatched firefighters brought no equipment with them and had inadequate training to fight the wildfires. They asked not to be quoted because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Even so, some were reported to have tried to sign on with neighboring volunteer fire departments that sent firefighters to the scene, although that couldn't be confirmed Thursday because those departments were out fighting the fires.
By midweek, stories of the turn-aways were sweeping through the blogosphere, bringing criticism to Bastrop's firefighting effort.
"With wildland firefighting, we have to have folks trained, qualified and credentialed," Holly Huffman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service who is overseeing much of the firefighting coordination, told a television reporter.
"We've got folks that are self-dispatching and coming in and maybe aren't credentialed in wildland firefighting. That just adds to the risk of someone getting hurt, and that's the last thing that we want."
Once the fires broke out Sunday, local officials quickly sought state assistance to fight the quickly spreading flames. About the same time as Austin officials on Tuesday requested assistance from off-duty firefighters to help battle two Travis County blazes, a Facebook message called for firefighters to come to Bastrop.
The message quickly went viral.
Avary and Smith, both volunteer firefighters in Ector County, told NewsWest 9 in Midland/Odessa on Wednesday that they drove to Bastrop to answer the call but were sent home Tuesday. Perry told much the same story, standing Thursday outside the Bastrop Convention and Exhibit Center, where he was helping hand out supplies to evacuees.
"I called Bastrop, and they said they could use whatever assistance they could get, so I drove up, " said Perry, a retired firefighter. "I'm still ticked off about the way they handled it."
Unlike others, Perry said he brought his equipment and is qualified to fight fires like those in Bastrop, from his days as a military firefighter in Arizona.
But Fisher and other officials said trained firefighters were dispatched to battle the blazes as part of a closely coordinated, strategic campaign.
Firefighters were brought in from across Texas and the nation — some U.S. Forest Service teams came in from as far away as Northern California, officials said — and all were organized and sent to specific areas based on their training and equipment, Fisher said.
That coordinated response was handled through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System, Fisher said, a network that allows officials across the state to closely coordinate the assignment of manpower and equipment in large emergencies such as the wildfires.
By Wednesday, Texas Forest Service officials said, 19 strike teams were on duty across the state fighting fires.
"Fighting these fires is a very precise process," Fisher said. "And even though we appreciate people volunteering, sometimes we can't accommodate them."
mward@statesman.com
