Kyle FD team deployed to Fort Stockton

By Megan Navarro

FORT STOCKTON — Three Kyle Fire Department (KFD) firefighters — Adam Laird, Andrew Cortez and Trent McCarty — were sent to Fort Stockton to support local officials in preparation for potential wildfires.

They arrived in the area on Friday, March 31, as part of a Texas A&M Forest Service Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) deployment on Strike Team 109. They were joined by firefighters from San Antonio, New Braunfels, Schertz, Oak Hill and Odessa.

The TIFMAS program includes grants, training, qualifications and mobilization systems to make statewide use of local resources. It was first used during Hurricane Ike in 2008 and has since been used in response to other incidents including wildfire outbreaks across Texas.

“We are out here pre-positioned because all of the Texas A&M Forest Service strike teams are further up north and they needed a strike team here,” Cortez explained.

Any time the team is called out, they will be stationed in a location for seven days and can extend to 14 to 21 days as needed. But after the 21 days are up, they need to move out.

“The education that we have developed over fire seasons is if we can pre-position teams, that’s a lot cheaper than having to call them in later or as an incident develops,” Laird explained. “When me and Cortez were in Childress, we were on standby up there, we caught a pretty significant fire and we had it taken care of in two days instead of it growing.”

Being on a TIFMAS strike team has allowed the KFD firefighters to not only increase their knowledge on the job, but also to network and develop relationships with other first responders and communities.

“You get to go out, network [and] get to see how other departments operate,” McCarty said. “There are so many different districts and counties that work with each other on a day-to-day basis, but then there’s an extension where you have departments that [work in] a completely different way that you are learning constantly. We would never get a chance to work with Odessa; we would never get a chance to work with Oak Hill or San Antonio.”

“Getting an opportunity to go out and actually see how everybody else operates, how they have their trucks set up, we are always feeding off each other. We get to get out here and hone our stuff, our techniques and everything else. It’s a pretty good opportunity that not many people know about or get the chance to do,” he continued.

Laird said that even if they do not get called to attend a fire, it’s been a relief to feel welcomed in the communities they are deployed to. Just this year alone, he has spent two weeks in Marble Falls and a week in Fort Davis.

As of 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Kyle FD team is still in Fort Stockton. According to Community Outreach Specialist Andy Womble, it is anticipated that they will stay in the area until the end of this week.