Be warned!

Red flag warning remains in effect from 11 am this morning to 9 PM CDT this evening.

A dry line will move across south central Texas today. This will bring unseasonably warm and very dry conditions to the area. Relative humidities will fall to between 5 and 15 percent in the afternoon. West and southwest winds will develop and increase to15 to 25 mph and gusty. Highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s can be expected. These temperatures will add to the critical conditions.

Winds will decrease after sunset and relative humidities will slowly recover. A red flag warning means weather conditions will promote firesthat are difficult to control across the warned area. A red flagwarning is completely separate from a local burn ban which isissued by local officials.

Hey, our first official Blogger comment!

just another guy said...

i saw the kens 5 show. it looked like the trucks are in better shape anda better station. i know those guys ( county ) put alot of time and moneys into geting those trucks fixed from where you guys bluntly toar them up. give it up already you guys are done. how can you keep voting on new members with no trucks and no station. if in three years the county guys cant hack it you will have your dept. back.
March 11, 2008 8:13 PM

BVFD said...
Oh, you're a riot "just another guy." The county is putting a lot of time and money in the trucks. BVFD would have done the same if the county and the city had seen fit to give us the money they'd budgeted for us.

Bluntly tore them up? Yeah, that happens on fires, you should know that if you're a fire fighter at KCFR. According to your fire reports with TFS, you've already "bluntly torn up" your "new" trucks. That's just part of fire fighting.

We keep voting in new members because BVFD is incorporated and as long as we keep training, we're still eligible for grant money for yet more training and more equipment. And as some of our guys are 3rd generation BVFD, we are not ready to give up. Fighting fires, as you know, gets in your blood. You almost have to do it. We're not ready to quit training, and we're certainly not ready to quit BVFD. We still have a department, what we don't have is trucks.
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Correction: Actually I am mistaken. KCFR's fire reports don't reflect any truck damage aside from one blown tire. It is from an eye witnesses account at one of their fires that I know one of KCFR's "new" trucks had a malfunction which I don't believe was caused by damage, it just malfunctioned. Regardless of my mistake, brush trucks take a tremendous beating in the field and unless someone is coughing up the bucks for repairs on those trucks, they remain beat up. We've been trying for a very long time to get repairs done on our trucks but the City and County haven't been interested in supporting their VFD for some time.

I would also like to point out that we still have a station. No one has contacted us to tell us otherwise. If they are planning to take our station from us too, I hope they are more considerate about consulting us on the matter than they were in giving away our trucks without so much as a memo for notification.

Regarding KENS 5's take on our story

The real issue for BVFD is that we believe we still own those trucks. The reporter said that the city owns them in one statement, but in another statement he says the trucks were appropriated for BVFD with grant money. To us, the second statement negates any validity to the first statement.

Here's the crux, folks, those trucks were purchased with grant money for BVFD. The grants were very specific in granting that money to BVFD, not the City of Brackettville. In fact neither of the granting agencies involved gives grants to governmental entities. The city insisted, way back when, that they wanted to handle the insurance because it would be cheaper (it wasn't cheaper, but no one at that time did the research) so the trucks were put in the city's name. But when something is paid for with grant money, a process has to be adhered to in order for ownership or use of that thing to be changed. The City never followed that process. According to those grants, the trucks still belong to BVFD no matter who holds title. BVFD should not have trusted the City to honor the agreement. If the City wants to own those trucks free and clear, they have to follow proper procedure to re-appropriate grant purchased equipment.

The trucks may be in the City's name, but they were never granted to the City of Brackettville.

The video.

BVFD on KENS 5 San Antonio TONIGHT!

KENS 5 was in Brackettville today to interview our department and some of the powers that be on the situation of the city and the county jointly deciding (without addressing any of BVFD's legal concerns) that BVFD had no rights to its trucks and that our engines should be handed over to KCFR. Which they were.

We are told that the story will air at either 5 or 6 p.m. Please tune in!

Two new members voted in!

At our business meeting on Wednesday night we voted in two new BVFD members.

Welcome Travis and David!

West Texas under danger alert

March 7, 2008

West Texas under fire danger alert
Vacationers and campers urged to use caution

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – A combination of weather factors forecast for the next few days, plus tinder-dry grasses and vegetation have resulted in the National Weather Service to issue Fire Weather Watches in far West Texas for this weekend. Low relative humidity and strong, gusty wind conditions are on tap for at least the next few days.

With the “Spring Break” season comes those taking vacations that include many outdoor activities, especially in the Big Bend area.

“Our grasses are not in spring green-up yet,” said John Morlock, fire management officer for Big Bend National Park. “We don’t have the flower display that we usually have, and the dry grasses are cured and ready to promote the spread of a wildfire.”

Morlock continued saying that historically during the month of March; three out of four fires in the park are human-caused. “We are asking our visitors to make an impact and help us prevent these types of fires.”

Citizens and visitors are urged to be extremely cautious during this period of critical fire danger. Some precautions suggested by Texas Forest Service include:
· Check with local authorities for Outdoor Burning Bans
· Your vehicles, including ATVs, can start a fire if parked or driven in dry grass
· Be sure tow chains are secure and don’t drag on the roadway
· When grilling, place your barbeque over cement; be sure coals are completely out when you are through (douse them thoroughly with water)

Morlock also urged caution with campfires and backpacking stoves.

For more information on fire weather danger and advisories, go to http://tfsnews.tamu.edu/ and click on Wildfire Information.

Texas Forest Service News

Local and state fire resources remain on alert

Proactive attack saves lives and homes

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – When Texas Forest Service (TFS) and the National Weather Service began forecasting extreme fire weather danger earlier this week, TFS wasted no time activating preparedness measures and pre-positioning firefighting personnel and equipment to areas of the state predicted to be at highest risk. As it turns out, this preparation paid off.

The highest fire danger this year occurred on Monday (Feb. 25), and fire behavior was extreme. All available Texas Forest Service resources were committed to the fire fighting effort, including resources from east Texas and all available aircraft from the Texas Air National Guard. At the height of the fight, 1,000 gallon water drops from helitankers did little to slow advancing flame fronts. Tactics switched from offensive suppression efforts to the direct protection of homes and other assets on that day.

T. K. Kennedy, a helicopter manager in Abilene, summarized the day’s events, “We dropped 38,000 gallons of water today, mostly in people’s backyards.”

“Five communities were evacuated,” said James Hull, state forester and director of TFS. “Luckily, everyone was able to return to their homes that night.”

The severity of this year’s fire season is one of the worst seasons on record. Since January 2008, fires have consumed over 500,000 acres and destroyed 300 structures; however, an estimated 5,622 structures were saved.

Governor Perry has issued state disaster proclamations for 216 of the state’s 254 counties in response to the fire danger.

No significant relief is in sight. The long range forecast calls for a strong cold front to cross the state at the beginning of the week, with showers and thunderstorms likely for the eastern half of Texas and a chance of rain and snow in the Panhandle. Little or no rain is expected across far west Texas. Drier, cooler air will spread over all of the state by Tuesday, remaining in place through the end of the week. Fire risk will remain elevated west of Interstate 35 and critical in the Trans Pecos area. Therefore, local and state resources remain on alert.

“The local fire departments are our first line of defense,” said Mark Stanford, fire operations chief for Texas Forest Service. “They have reported to us that they responded to 3,060 fires so far this year for a total of 148,310 acres of the overall acres burned.”

Cooperating and assisting state agencies during the fire season include: Governor's Division of Emergency Management, Texas Department of Public Safety, TX Air National Guard, TX State Fire Marshall's Office and Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas AgriLife Extension.

Out-of-state resources from Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana and Virginia are providing relief and additional support. Assisting federal resources include the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Citizens are urged to be extremely cautious during this period of critical fire danger. Some precautions suggested by Texas Forest Service include:

• Check with local authorities for Outdoor Burning Bans
• Your vehicle can start a fire if parked or driven in dry grass. ATVs and farming equipment can also start a fire if parked on the grass.
• Store flammable liquids properly.
• Remove dry vegetation from under electric fences.
• When welding, use a spotter, clear the area of dry vegetation, and have a water source handy. • Be sure tow chains are secure and don’t drag on the roadway.
• When grilling, place your barbeque over cement; be sure coals are dead out when you’re through (douse them thoroughly with water).

For more information on fire weather danger and advisories, go to http://tfsnews.tamu.edu/ and click on Wildfire Information.