By Scott Thompson
On August 25, 2017, Harvey, a Category 4 tropical storm, made landfall on the Texas coast. Harvey arrived with 132 mile-per-hour (mph) winds, a six-foot storm surge, and heavy rainfall that lasted several days, resulting in record accumulations for many Texas coastal counties. Near Highlands, Texas, almost 52 inches of rain was recorded, setting a new rainfall record for a tropical cyclone in the continental United States. Because of Harvey, 39 Texas counties were declared major disaster areas; more than 40,000 homes received flood damage; and more than 779,268 people were displaced. Not since 1961 had a storm of this magnitude made landfall in Texas.
To meet the fire, rescue, emergency medical, and humanitarian needs created by Harvey, many Texas fire departments responded under a statewide mutual-aid agreement. The first request for assistance through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) was received on August 25, and the last request was filled on September 16. As of October 14, there were at least 84 confirmed fatalities, most from drowning.
(1) The Denton County Task Force assists other agencies in fighting a working house fire. (Photo by Justyn Fraize.)
Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System
TIFMAS is managed by the Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS), the state agency responsible for mobilizing structural fire resources to large-scale events such as Harvey. The TFS has a long history of providing wildland fire and incident management training and response for the state. In the early 1980s, the TFS introduced the incident command system in Texas and provided the first incident management teams in 1984.
In 2006, TIFMAS was established to increase fire response in Texas. Since 2008, TIFMAS has responded to 30 deployments, including Harvey, mobilizing 3,569 firefighters from 296 Texas fire departments. During the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, TIFMAS resources responded to 2,056 incidents in a 16-day period. Nine hundred eighty-five firefighters from 136 fire departments from across the state staffed 296 pieces of equipment to meet the demand. The Harvey TIFMAS response included also 45 all-hazard Strike Teams and 296 TIFMAS resources that included 44 boats; 73 command vehicles; 66 type 1 engines; 17 type 3 engines; two type 4 engines; 32 type 6 engines; 26 tenders; 26 pickup trucks; two trucks 4WD; one type 1 mobile command post; and one utility vehicle-command post. Additionally, Texas Task Forces 1 and 2 (TX-TF1, TX-TF2) were deployed as state assets through the State Operations Center (SOC). TIFMAS units worked to support Task Force (TF) members conducting search and rescue operations. In all, 17,000 rescues were performed in a 16-day period.
Denton County, Texas
Denton County is a rapidly growing county just north of Dallas and east of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It is home to several rapidly growing cities. Twenty-nine fire departments are within the county. The departments include large career, combination, and rural volunteer departments. Denton County has a very strong mutual-aid and automatic assistance program; multiple departments work together frequently.
The first resources from Denton County headed toward the coast on August 26; the last crew arrived home on October 8. Lake Cities Fire Department Deputy Chief Chad Thiessen was the acting North Branch TIFMAS coordinator and initiated the Denton County response by contacting each fire department within the county to get an idea of what personnel were available for deployment. Participation in TIFMAS is voluntary, and deployments and the formation of TFs is done on a case-by-case basis according to the needs and type of event. Thirteen fire departments responded.
(2) Crews clear debris as part of the Harvey recovery effort. (Photo 2 by James McAllister.)
In addition to all-hazard fire resources, multiple medical Strike Teams responded from Denton County, including two Ambulance Buses (AmBus) capable of carrying 18 patients on stretchers and five additional patients in wheelchairs. The AmBuses are part of the Texas Department of State Health’s initiative to maximize first response, mass-casualty, rapid health care facility evacuation and on-site medical rehab for responders. The buses from the Flower Mound and Frisco Fire Departments responded from one of eight trauma regions in the North Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council.
The Colony Fire Department
The Colony Fire Department was the first Denton County department Thiessen put on standby for a possible TIFMAS deployment to the coast (August 27). The initial request was for one four-person engine company (type 1) and one two-person brush truck (type 6); the estimated departure time was approximately three hours from notification. Earlier that day, TCFD Division Chief Jason Wilson deployed with a Denton County communications team activated by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
(3) Crews clear debris as part of the Harvey recovery effort. (Photo 3 by Zach Hamlin.)
The duration of the deployment was anticipated to be 14 to 21 days. Each resource was expected to be self-sufficient for 24 to 72 hours. At the time of the request, the TCFD began notifying company officers, drive engineers, and firefighters. As with fire departments in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, many firefighters live several hours from their assigned fire stations. The TCFD would need the three hours to get off-duty personnel in to deploy or back-fill firehouses for those who deployed.
Shortly after the initial request, the TCFD was notified that an engine company was needed to fill the last spot on a TF that was already forming; the spot was vacated when a fire asset backed out. Using on-duty personnel, a crew was put together and was on its way to the meeting point within an hour after getting approval from the State Operations Center.
When resources are unavailable in a region, the local emergency management coordinator has the option to request state resources through the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Disaster District Relief Committee Chair. The request is made through a State of Texas Assistance Request (STAR). The STAR prevents departments from self-dispatching and is necessary for participating departments to get reimbursed. Once the TIFMAS coordinator has the STAR, he can begin authorizing fire departments to deploy. Multiple departments joined together with various assets to form a strike team. Operationally, each strike team is under the supervision of a selected TF leader. Each member of the strike team is required to have the appropriate credentials from TIFMAS—in this case, an all-hazards card. This ensures that all responding personnel are properly trained for their assignment.
All TIFMAS resources deployed from the North Texas area were instructed to report to College Station, Texas, approximately four hours from where Harvey hit the coast. Resources would receive their initial assignment there. Strike teams would deploy to the coast to begin work. Initial assignments involved search and rescue. As the rains moved out of the area, TIFMAS resources were reassigned to assist local fire departments that were heavily damaged or whose call volume exceeded their operational capabilities.
The TCFD rotated engine company crews twice and brush crews three times. Returning companies were required to come through College Station as part of the demobilization. During the crew swaps, apparatus were left in place and crews were transported in smaller support vehicles. Off-duty personnel were hired back to maintain minimum staffing so that there was no reduction in fire, rescue, or emergency medical services in The Colony.
Challenges
• As mutual-aid fire units began arriving in the hardest hit areas, they encountered access challenges in many areas. Wilson’s communication group, which was among the first in an area, lost communication because the water continued to rise for 24 hours.
• All of the utility infrastructure was damaged, making communications by phone and radio difficult.
• Four members of the TCFD became sick from contamination; they required medical care from a field hospital and follow-up with the TCFD’s medical control physicians.
• Firefighting efforts were obviously hampered by access issues and water supply because the water systems were down and the hydrants were under water.
• The lack of street signs made it difficult for fire companies not familiar with the fire district to locate emergencies.
• It was difficult to decontaminate personal protective clothing.
Recovery
As operations transitioned from rescue to recovery, TIFMAS assets participated in humanitarian efforts ranging from debris removal, handing out water and food, assisting residents, and air lifting feed to livestock. TCFD units remained in Rockport, Texas, for three weeks, assisting with emergency calls, drawing maps to compensate for the lack of street signs, and assisting the citizens to initiate the recovery process.
The TFS completed a comprehensive After-Action Review (AAR) titled “ESF #4 AAR on Impacts to Fire Service Response.” In the report, multiple Denton County agencies conducted debriefings to identify critical areas of concern during TIFMAS deployments. The final report lists 25 findings and recommendations.
Fire departments from across Texas donated needed items and, through the TFS Helping Hands program, transferred these items to affected fire departments. Dallas Fire Rescue donated enough bunker gear to fill six moving vans. The gear will be inventoried and sent to departments that lost their gear as a result of the hurricane.
References
Wilson, Jason. Personal interview. 20 September 2017.
Deputy Chief Chad Thiessen, Twin Cities (TX) Fire Department. Personal interview. 27 October 2017.
Texas A&M Forest Service. ESF #4 AAR on Impacts to Fire Service Response. 2017.
Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System. Business and Mobilization Procedures. 2017.
Texas Forest Service. The Role of the Texas Forest Service in All-Hazard Incident Management. 2010.
Grant, Stuart. Personal interview. 27 October 2017.
Hamlin, Zach. Personal interview. 3 November 2017.
Young, Brent. Personal interview. 13 November 2017.
Scott Thompson began his fire service career in 1981. Over the course of his career, he has worked with several progressive Texas fire departments. He is the chief of The Colony (TX) Fire Department. He has been a HOT instructor and classroom presenter at FDIC since 2002. He has written numerous articles for Fire Engineering and has recently completed authoring The Functional Fire Company, Positioning Small Groups for Success and Survival (Fire Engineering) to be available in 2018.
