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Although most members of the Swift-Shady Grove VFD in eastern Nacogdoches County have regular day jobs, they were only too happy to offer assistance to those fighting wildfires in west Texas. Members of the City of Nacogdoches Fire Department left early Sunday for deployment with the Texas Forest Service and took a truck from the Swift station with them.
“Our members just could not leave their jobs to help fight the fires,” explained Chief David Kirk. “So, we offered our truck to the city for their use.”
Members of the department recently made an agreement with the city department to make a truck available to them when they were deployed.
“It’s a win-win situation on the face of it,” Kirk said. “The forest service will reimburse us for the use of our truck, and the city guys get paid for being on deployment.”
According to NFD Battalion Chief Frankie Hamby, his department can often find off duty firefighters who are available to deploy on large incidents, but they do not have enough trucks for the crews to use. The department has been fortunate to receive offers of equipment from local volunteer departments to help transport local firefighters to the area.
Kirk says his department is having to “make do” with their other two trucks until the deployed truck returns.
“We have no idea how long our truck may be deployed,” he said. “We just hope that all the firefighters return safe and sound. We are just doing what we can to help our neighbors to the west.”
As of Monday morning, more than 100,000 acres had burned in the area between Lubbock and Amarillo as the result of several large out of control fires. At least forty homes had burned in and around Ft. Davis. A spokesman for the Texas Forest Service said firefighters from 25 states are in the area to assist local responders in trying to bring the fires under control.
