Lake Travis Fire Rescue staffers join deployment to fight California wildfires

Three operations staffers from Lake Travis Fire Rescue joined nearly 200 other Central Texas firefighters deployed Monday to southern California to combat the outbreak of devastating wildfires that have been burning at both ends of the state.

According to the Austin Fire Department, the region sent two task forces and four trucks from the Central Branch of the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System, an agreement that provides for the sharing of resources with other fire departments. 

“Lake Travis has been supporting (the mutual aid system) for years and deploying out to wildland events throughout the state of Texas,” said Battalion Chief Eric Carlson who, along with Lt. Travis McAnally and Lt. Adam Griggs, left from the Oak Hill Fire Station at 1 p.m. “We go out and lend a hand when we can.”

Los Angeles County has 60 stations closed because their trucks are out on other calls, he said. So, the team is also bringing all of its structural gear in case it is needed to assist in day-to-day firefighting calls, Carlson said.

Although the group is headed to Malibu, the initial mission can be diverted to other areas “depending on what kind of emergencies are occurring,” he said. The entire trip to Los Angeles from Austin is 1,300 miles and the team will stop in El Paso for the night, Carlson said.

Other fire departments deployed Monday include those from Austin, Bryan, Kyle, Lake Travis, Oak Hill and Round Rock.

Under the mutual aid system, Carlson said, multiple fire departments agree to staff emergency vehicles that are purchased by the state.

 “That way, we don’t have to do a lot of wear and tear on our own vehicles,” he said. “It also ensures ... a vehicle that meets their specifications and needs.”

Carlson said he and Lake Travis Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Prather were among some of the first firefighters deployed to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, during the infancy of the mutual aid system program.

“The prior fire chief and this fire chief (Robert B. Abbott) have always supported lending our neighbors a hand — being able to have the opportunity to go out and help out others and learn from other fire departments,” he said. “Certainly that improves our knowledge, skills and abilities.”

However, Carlson said the deployment will not affect the efficiency of agency's fire-fighting ability at home.

“When we deployed to (Hurricane) Harvey, that started to have an effect but certainly not an effect that would negatively impact our citizens. We always had four people on every truck,” he said. “That’s one thing we won’t compromise.”

Carlson said the department has extra staff to handle vacations and training, with some officers working overtime or canceling vacations to accommodate the deployment. He said 10 new officers will begin serving with the department Tuesday in its new hire academy and will be able to assist on trucks starting mid-December. With the new hires, Carlson said the department’ has 90 operations staffers, not including support staff who are civilians. The department's five fire stations cover 104 square miles.

“In the past, we have had a couple of instances where our staffing was a little low,” he said. “Before we hired this last group of five or six, it was a little too low and the chief did turn down a mission. The assistant chief and the chief made a decision that it would make it difficult (on our staffing). It would tap people out.”

Once news of the deployment broke, Carlson said members of the Lake Travis community reached out to the department offering donations to make the fire fighters’ long trip more comfortable but the team “has all of its needs met right now.”

The state pays for all trip expenses, including the regular salaries of the fire fighters while deployed, with no funds coming out of taxpayers’ pockets, he said.

“There’s no negative impact to our agency (from the deployment),” Carlson said.

Some of the deployments require a commitment of seven to 21 days, and the California deployment is for at least 14 days, taking the staff away from family on the Thanksgiving holiday, he said.

“I know there’s many of the other guys who are here (at the department) who would love to go but they can’t because of commitments they have,” said Carlson, who has a wife and son at home. “Our families are very supportive of us.”