Heckler story "revisited" in The Brackett News

On April 17th The Brackett News' front page story read, "Heckler hassles firefighters on hose line." The story goes on to say that a BVFD member heckled KCFR during a structure fire. This week, in the April 24 issue, on the very back page in the classifieds under "Corrections" the paper informs us that said heckler is not a BVFD member anymore and hasn't been for at least three months.

I've talked to a few people who were at the fire, including said heckler. It's true that he has not been a Brackettville VFD member since at least January of this year. He volunteers with another department and, for various reasons, he had to resign his position with BVFD when he began volunteering with another department. No criticism there, how many fires can one man fight?

I don't know what KCFR has to say on the matter. The accused heckler says he offered his services, was told his help wasn't needed, offered again, was told no again, and that he then moved back to where he was asked to so that he would be out of the way. He also pointed out that this, ultimately, was not a polite exchange from either side but that he certainly did not interfere or "heckle" KCFR while they were trying to suppress the fire. According to him, once KCFR made it quite clear that in no way, shape, or form would they accept his help--that he got the heck out of the way. He claims his only comment at all to any KCFR members after he stepped back out of the way was to point out that they couldn't get the fire hydrant open because one of the members was turning the valve the wrong way. Is it heckling to point out such a very important fact at the scene of a fire?

Beyond that, according to him, he said nothing. According to another witness at the fire who was close enough to hear the exchange between the "heckler" and KCFR, the so-called heckler offered his services, was refused because of insurance reasons, offered again stating that he wasn't worried about injury to himself and wouldn't press for compensation if he were hurt but was refused again. This witness, who preferred not to be named, says he saw no heckling of any kind that evening. He also pointed out that he wasn't near our former BVFD member throughout the evening and can't vouch for all of his actions at the fire.

I can hardly blame KCFR for saying no to the offer (the liability probably just isn't worth it for a county run department to take on help from unknown strangers at the scene of a fire), nor can I blame our former BVFD member for wanting to help--especially considering his training and experience. KCFR could have been much more professional in saying no, and our former member could have turned the other cheek when he was treated rudely instead of being rude right back. But, hey, stuff happens. And a structure fire is a very stressful place to be for all fire fighters.

I'd like to know what kind of heckling people are claiming our former member was doing and I'd like to know which people are claiming to have witnessed it. I haven't heard a peep about that. Speaking of lack of source material, KCFR still fails to point out under what statutes they have established their department. The powers that be still seem content to disregard our points of law on the matter and refuse to offer points of law that disprove ours.

As long as the citizens of Brackettville, TX continue to allow themselves to be told what to believe, they'll continue to believe what they are told. I encourage everyone in Brackettville to press their city and county leaders to prove what they say to be true and to conduct business according to Texas legal statutes. If you aren't being shown the truth, then you must seek it out for yourselves.

BVFD and The Brackett News

Yes, I know BVFD made it on the front page of The Brackett News last week. Thursday afternoon and evening brought a flurry of hits on the blog, many emails full of question marks and exclamation points, and we burned up a lot of minutes on our cell phones. But I'm told that the newspaper will be revisiting the story again next week so I'm hesitant to respond to the story just yet. Check back next Friday!

Aww, shucks.

Thanks to Ann Legg for her glowing Letter to the Editor in this week's The Brackett News. And we're all so sorry about the loss of your property, but very grateful that no one was hurt.

This week's paper also has this in its community news:

Kinney County Commissioner's Court voted in a special called meeting on Monday, to extend a burn ban on Kinney County for a 90 day period which excludes exemptions in the previous ban.

What this burn ban basically means is that no one can burn, period, even if they've followed prescribed burn ban procedure. For various reasons, some I understand and some I'm sure I'm entirely unaware of, Kinney County law enforcement has been unable to enforce the burn ban in Kinney County, it's a shame but those guys have a lot on their shoulders. Here's hoping that this burn ban extension will make it easier to enforce the ban and, with any luck, make people realize that now is NOT the time to burn.

It's no wonder why people are so desperate to burn that they will defy burn bans. A burn kills off, or at least damages, a lot of inedible trees and brush. Even without rain a burned field pops back with lush, green grasses in just a week or two. It's so odd to see a lush green field surrounded by fields of dry, dead grasses. Lush green grasses are free food for cattle, goats, sheep, deer, and various other livestock and wildlife. It's expensive to have to buy feed during a drought for all your animals. And we've been in this drought for a long while. But the danger posed by burning during a drought is great. With the gusty winds we have and the super dry conditions, a wildfire can get out of control in a flash. When this happens, homes, livestock, equipment, structures, vehicles, fences, and people maybe in danger. It's a very big risk and not worth what could be lost.

More from The Brackett News

My last published blog entry used a clipping from The Brackett News that I honestly felt I had fair use to use since its content wasn't original (unless the newspaper changed the Sheriff's Report before printing it), because it was for non-profit use, and because it was such a small portion of the published paper as a whole. However, in a very polite email from The Brackett News owner, Leigh Volscko, she told me she had been informed that I had scanned and uploaded a portion of her paper and asked me to remove it, so I have.

You will have to just trust me from here, I suppose, unless you have your own copy of the paper to refer to. I will quote the portion of the clipping that I published in my last entry.

In last week's Sheriff's Report there was quote saying that on Monday, February 11th, "....the fire was getting close to the houses. The Brackettville Volunteer Fire Dept. was paged three times and there were no response. The Val Verde Fire Department was then contacted. The fire was later reported under control and aide was cancelled."

This story isn't "wrong." It just leaves out some key facts which ultimately leaves the reader believing that BVFD ignored three calls from the Sheriff's office on this fire. Yours truly was on the phone with the Sheriff's office immediately after the first page and within minutes (less than five) after the first page the fire was called off. In fact, I still have the phone number of the contact person who reported the fire, I wrote it down when the Sheriff's office called my home right after the first page. The fire may have been paged out three times, I don't remember, I was too busy grabbing my husband's bunker gear for him as he was trying to get oriented--he'd just been wakened from a dead sleep-- to count how many times the fire got paged out. I was also very scared because the page had said that there were homes being threatened by the fire. Believe me, that gets you moving. Above all else, firefighters (volunteer or otherwise) are keenly aware of what fire can do to lives and homes.

Our firefighters nearly all have cell phones and they all call each other within moments of a page so they can begin organizing even as they are jumping in their cars to drive to the station. This call was called off so quickly that there was little time for firefighters to call the Sheriff's office or each other.

Response time from a paid department who has firefighters standing by, within feet of their trucks, to respond at all times would be much quicker than the response time from a group of volunteer firefighters who are all asleep in their beds at 2:30 in the morning. A slightly slower response time from volunteers who don't hang out at the station 24/7 is to be expected.

I've said this before publicly and I've said it here repeatedly: If the county wants to create a county run fire department so it can have firefighters who can respond faster and have better equipment, then they should do it. It would be a good thing for the community. But BVFD shouldn't get bashed, even if was an accidental omission, for being volunteers who can't scramble as fast because they are ASLEEP or at work or fishing with their kids or doing what people do when they aren't voluntarily risking their health and safety to protect the lives and properties of others.

If you don't like the way that BVFD responds to a fire, then there's something you can do about it. You can join. BVFD can't be changed from the outside, it's an entity run by its members. BVFD is not answerable to the county or to the city. You want it to be run differently? Then get in here and show us what you got.

On a more personal note, I was sitting in the living room one day watching television with a friend when Julie Fuentes (of Daddy's Grill) knocked on my door. She wanted to let me know that my back yard was on fire. Bless that woman, she probably saved our house. I raced to the backyard to discover that a large pile of wood had caught fire because of some hot coals that fell out of the barbeque pit. We called 911 immediately and BVFD members (this was years before my husband joined the department) were there in less than five minutes. Some were in personal vehicles and one of the fire engines arrived too.

I had the fire out by the time they arrived, a girl can move pretty fast when she's afraid her house is going to burn down, but my eaves were blackened at one corner of the house and those guys scrambled onto the roof to make sure that no sparks had settled themselves on something up there that might catch (my roof is metal but there is some wooden trim up there as well). I watched amazed as they used the call as a training session for some of the newer members--showing the newbies how to feel for hotspots, look and smell for smoke, and I don't know what all they did up there.

I was so grateful for the department at that moment and my gratitude has never waned since. I've always had a special place in my heart for BVFD, however. My stepfather was a member of the department for many years and also served as Chief.

In Answer To The Brackett News

In this week’s The Brackett News the top story reads, “City Council tables crucial fire protection agreement.”

What’s so crucial about it? You already have a volunteer fire department in place that is actively fighting fires. Isn’t switching support from your current fire to department to one that can't even fight fires (yet) like putting the cart before the horse? What about the current agreement between the City and the County for fire suppression? Shouldn't both entities be honoring that?

Here’s what’s crucial to BVFD: getting legal access to the funds that have been budgeted for them so they can continue doing what they’ve been doing, without pay, benefits, or compensation, for the last 55 years.

In the editor's weekly blog the following questions were asked by Allison Taylor, managing editor:

“My question to the council and the community is why not give the fire equipment to the County?"

Here’s one reason, this is taken directly from the Texas Forest Service website:

The Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program was created by the Texas Legislature in 2001. The program provides cost-share grants to qualified volunteer fire departments for the acquisition of equipment and training. Approximately $14.5 million in grant funds are available each year, beginning on September 1.

On May 4, 2004, the Texas Forest Service conducted its third funding meeting for Fiscal Year 2004. Approximately $3.8 million dollars in grant funds were awarded. The grant recipients are listed below in alphabetical order.

Each department receiving a grant will receive an official Letter of Approval confirming the award.

BRACKETTVILLE V F D, KINNEY, C/S BRUSH TRUCK SMALL, $54,000.00

Link to the grant info page

The grant was for BVFD, not the City of Brackettville. Regardless of who holds title, equipment purchased with grant money must be re-appropriated, sold or disposed of according to the requirements of the granting agency. The City hasn’t researched these requirements much less followed them.

Here’s another reason the City can’t give “the fire equipment” to the County. Only the trucks are in the City’s name. The rest of "the fire equipment" belongs to BVFD. Unfortunately neither the City nor BVFD ever foresaw a day when the trucks might be given to another department so the documentation over who has rights to what is.... well, no one knows where it is.

We can only hope that the City of Brackettville is looking through its records now for meeting minutes that will either verify or conflict with what BVFD believes which is that the trucks are theirs. In the meantime, BVFD is working with the Texas Forest Service to find out its rights over the fire engines and to research the procedures for re-appropriating trucks purchased with grant monies.

“Can the City support the existing department?”

No, not by themselves, not in the long run. Which is one reason that the County has always pledged its help. Another reason is that 90% or more of the fires in Kinney County are outside Brackettville city limits and therefore it has always behooved KC to contribute to BVFD.

If the City and County spent some of the money they have budgeted for BVFD towards the needed repairs, BVFD could continue fire suppression much more effectively.

“Can the City supply better, even brand new equipment with or without grants?”

Yes. $16,000 (the City’s current budget for BVFD support) would go a long way towards repairing old equipment, purchasing new equipment, and assisting BVFD in applying for and qualifying for grants.

“Can the City outright purchase a pumper truck for the city?"

No and neither can the county. That’s why it is being done through a grant.

Plans for a new pumper were discussed between BVFD and Judge Herb Senne almost two years ago. BVFD is unaware if the grant application has ever been made. In addition, no grant or application has been approved by Commissioners Court for BVFD or KCFR.

"What good is equipment if it doesn’t work?"

Good question, why do you think BVFD is complaining about not having access to the funds that have been budgeted by KC and the City? Right now BVFD is still able to fight fires even though KC and Brackettville refuse to repair BVFD's two heavy trucks (essential for fighting wildfires).

BVFD is currently seeking donations to repair those two trucks. To date $3,900 has been pledged. Why does BVFD have to beg for governmental funds that are supposedly budgeted for fire suppression?

“Does the City have the money to get them in tip top shape like they should be?"

If the City and County were spending the funds budgeted for fire suppression the equipment wouldn’t be in such bad shape.

One of the great things about having a volunteer fire department is that the Texas Commission on Fire Protection doesn’t require that a VFD’s equipment meet the same standards as a paid department. This allows rural communities like ours to be able to afford fire protection. VFD’s can use just about anything they can get their hands on. The City, with help from KC, could certainly keep BVFD running efficiently and effectively if they are allowed the use of the funds budgeted towards their repairs.

“What is the down side?”

There may be many, most of which are legal issues. It would be great to have a properly sanctioned, county run fire department. No one is disputing that. But so far, there's been no proof presented that KCFR is meeting the guidelines of a paid/volunteer fire department as set forth by Chapter 419 of the Texas Government Code.

By the way, many counties have two fire departments. Del Rio has a paid department that focuses on city fires and a rural volunteer fire department that concentrates its efforts outside the city limits. Kinney County has plenty of rural area that needs fire suppression. If current red flag conditions continue, there will be no lack of fires for both a paid and a volunteer fire department to suppress. However, if BVFD had access to the budgeted funds, it would be more than up to the challenge of handling city and rural fires in Kinney County. BVFD also believes it could do so more cost effectively since all its members are volunteer.

“What’s all this talk about working together, but we want we want…. that is not working together.”

No one has offered to work with or even consult with BVFD on the issue of turning over BVFD trucks to KCFR prior to Tuesday night's meeting. Without those trucks, BVFD can’t work at all, with or against anyone.

We want
Kinney County Fire & Rescue wants Brackettville Volunteer Fire Department trucks. They also want a pledge of money and support from the City with a payment of $10,000.

We want
Matt Bland and Mayor Eddie Esparza want to give BVFD trucks to the County as well as a $10,000 check to support KCFR.

We want
BVFD wants to continue fighting fires in Kinney County as they have for last 55 years and they want to be able to count on City and County support to do so.

“Saving $6,000 yearly isn’t so bad either."

Brackettville is going to save $6,000 with this agreement? Taylor doesn't say why. Does she say this because the City has $16,000 budgeted for BVFD support but KCFR will only cost them $10,000 (the first year) and the BVFD fire engines?

The City didn’t spend $10,000 on fire suppression last year. Just because money is budgeted for a thing doesn't mean all of that money is spent towards it. In fact, the City should factor into their final decision on handing the trucks over what it has actually cost to fund BVFD annually for the last ten years, not just what they've budgeted annually.

The City of Brackettville made a wise decision tabling this issue on Tuesday night and here’s why: How smart is it to give money and fire engines to a fire department that can’t use them because the trucks don’t meet the requirements for a governmental run fire department?

KCFR is a department that, so far, hasn’t proven its status with the Texas Fire Commission. A smaller detail to consider is that KCFR doesn’t have a building to store and protect its fire engines. If BVFD trucks are given to KCFR, and KCFR only has a pumper truck to fight fires with, how are wildfires going to be suppressed while KCFR's "new" brush trucks are being repaired and brought up to TCFP (Texas Commission on Fire Protection) spec?

As stated before on this blog, you can't fight a wildfire with a pumper truck, no matter how new and shiny it may be.

Here are a few questions for the community, the Council, the Mayor, KCFR, the County, and The Brackett News:

Is the new interim fire chief for KCFR getting paid or is he a volunteer? Was he ever officially appointed by a governing body? Does our new interim volunteer fire chief meet the following qualifications as dictated by our state’s statutes?

§ 419.032. APPOINTMENT OF FIRE PROTECTION PERSONNEL.
(f) A local government may appoint a person to the position of head of the fire department, though the person is not certified by the commission as fire protection personnel, if the person either has at least 10 years' experience as a volunteer fire fighter or may be eligible to become certified under the provisions of Subsection (d) relating to other states or jurisdictions.

Link to § 419.032.

Under what state statute is KCFR claiming it can operate a paid/volunteer fire department?

How many grants has KCFR actually qualified for, with whom, how much are they for, and does the county have the money yet?

Is the money that Bruce Hudgens, Kinney County Emergency Medical Coordinator and EMS Director, intends to spend to repair BVFD’s trucks budgeted by KC?

Is Kinney County sure that the trucks can be repaired to such a condition as to be legal for a county run fire department to use?

How much money has been budgeted for these repairs, if any? Will it be enough?

Why hasn’t money promised to BVFD by the County in the past been given to BVFD for some of the needed repairs?

Why should we believe that Kinney County will take care of those trucks now when they haven’t used any of their BVFD budgeted funds towards that purpose in quite some time?

Isn't it perplexing that no one has asked for or investigated the cost of repairing the fire engines that some city officials want to give to KCFR?

Horse before the cart, folks. Do your research, make sure all your ducks are in a row, THEN vote, appropriate, decide, shuffle, spend, appoint or whatever it is you gotta do to establish and equip your new Kinney County Fire & Rescue.