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Nortex Regional Public Safety Academy is dedicated to meeting the needs of a complex and dynamic fire service by providing programs of the highest quality. The academy’s objectives and goals are: to provide training programs designed to develop the basic and advanced skills necessary for students to be more effective members of the fire service and society; to provide the best instruction and training possible in all areas of the fire service; to provide a means to allow firefighters to demonstrate their ability to meet professional qualification standards. It is the further mission of this Nortex Regional Planning Commission to provide assistance to volunteer fire departments recruit and retain firefighters. The ability to recruit, train, and retain quality firefighters is vital to our local fire departments.

Foard County Wildfire Exercise

Some 40 firefighters from the area and as far away as Palo Pinto County recently attended a daylong training exercise conducted by the Texas Wildfire Association and Nortex Regional Planning Commission. The site was the Crowell mitigation area in Foard County and is included in the overall Red River Chloride Control Project mitigation area. The area includes land along the Canal Creek, a south bank tributary of the Pease River. The federally-owned land is part of nearly 12,000 acres held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The land has been determined sufficient to offset all terrestrial impacts of chloride control features, constructed and proposed, including those in the Wichita River Basin, which comprises about 4,417 acres of lost habitat. The habitat impacted by construction was primarily composed of mesquite/juniper and small amounts of cropland and range habitat. The primary purpose of the mitigation land is to offset or replace terrestrial habitat losses because of construction of project features. The greatest value for the Crowell mitigation land can be realized through management of fish and wildlife resources to provide the public with fishing and hunting opportunities. Native species include white-tailed deer, mule deer, scaled quail, bobwhite quail, Rio Grande turkey, cottontail, mourning dove, and migratory waterfowl. Hunting opportunities for these species and feral pigs are currently available. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representative Pete Robinson called the burn successful. “The prescribed fire benefits the wildlife habitat by removing old vegetation and allowing new growth to the area,” he said. Robinson is associated with the Truscott Brine Lake Project. Organizers had originally planned to burn some 400 acres, but because of high humidity and other factors, only about 100 acres were burned. Volunteer fire departments from Lone Camp, Branch, Paducah, Bellevue, Benjamin, and Crowell participated in the exercise. Other agencies represented included Texas Fire Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Foard County Sheriff’s Department manning the Regional Command Unit. Foard County furnished a maintainer for the event and the Lone Camp department also brought several pieces of equipment including a dozer and an ATV. Participants had already been through National Wildfire Coordination Group Firefighter II training, a series of training programs that includes classroom as well as hands-on training, according to Mark Hanson, Nortex Regional Planning Commission fire division coordinator. After initial training is completed, firefighters must complete a NWCG task book recording actual fire responses or exercises. The Crowell exercise was designed to build on top of that training as strike teams as well as to provide an opportunity to work out any “glitches” in incident command skills. “It was a good exercise in strike team deployments that allowed firefighters to work closely with other strike teams from across North Texas in a controlled but realistic situation,” said Larry Weaver of Granbury. Weaver is associated with the Texas Wildfire Association. Crowell Fire Chief Perry Shaw said, “The exercise helped the local area and the fire department here by reducing the fire fuel load on the rangeland and resulting in good fire prevention and it also gave our firefighters some very good training.” A similar exercise is being planned for March 2009. Organizers are expecting an even larger response from area fire departments as they complete the NWCG requirements. The second exercise will be held in the same area.

Joe Stewart

Director of Criminal Justice/Fire
940-322-5281 Ext.: 118
jstewart@nortexrpc.org

Laura Patterson

Public Safety Training Coordinator
940-322-5281 Ext.: 122
lpatterson@nortexrpc.org

Mark Hanson

Fire Division Coordinator
940-322-5281 Ext.: 117
mhanson@nortexrpc.org

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