Sept. 16, 2015—BASTROP, Texas— Bastrop is no stranger to the dangers and devastation that wildfire can bring to a community. One weekend proved how reducing overgrown vegetation and implementing other mitigating efforts can decrease the severity of wildfires—potentially saving a community from a destructive fire path.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, along State Highway 71 in Bastrop County, a roadside start ignited a brush fire along a fuel-loaded drainage area just to the west of the already fire-affected Tahitian Village subdivision.

The wildfire was burning in heavy pine, yaupon and cedar trees, exhibiting what fire experts call very active fire behavior. Flames ran through understory fuels and torched in the pine and cedar canopy of the trees. As the wildfire traveled west, rapidly consuming brush and needle drape, the fire encountered a mulched area of land, put in by the county as a buffer zone and line of defense against such wildfires. Without the heavy fuels to burn, the wildfire dropped down out of the canopy of the trees and burned along the ground as a surface fire. Here it lost intensity and was able to be contained by fire crews. Textbook of what the buffer zone is designed to do.

“I am very pleased that we are able to be proactive in wildfire mitigation. It is my hope that never again will we have to face the tragedy of a repeat of the 2011 wildfire here in Bastrop County,” Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Fisher said.

The mulched area is part of a fuels treatment grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, administered by the Texas Department of Emergency Management and implemented by Bastrop County just one month ago. This is only the second such grant FEMA has awarded in Texas. 

“This story exemplifies a battle-tested theory that proves the process works,” Texas A&M Forest Service Task Force Coordinator Rich Gray said.

This process began with the county subscribing to the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program which helps communities implement hazard mitigation measures following a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration. In this case, the Bastrop County Complex Fire in 2011, which burned 34,000 acres, destroyed nearly 1,700 homes and businesses and claimed two lives.

Bastrop County follows a Texas A&M Forest Service-supported, countywide, Community Wildfire Protection Plan and uses information garnered from the Texas Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal as guidance to focus hazard mitigation efforts. The county has also partnered with TFS on mulching projects over the past five years for endangered species habitat management and complementary fuels reduction.

“This is capacity building at its finest,” said Tom Boggus, state forester and director of Texas A&M Forest Service. “We try to provide research, tools, resources and opportunities for local Texas governments to use and expand upon to protect their own communities. And Bastrop County takes care of its own.”

Using funds from the HMGP grant, Bastrop County identified areas along key ignition corridors. The two main areas of concern happen along the west side of the Bastrop County Complex burn scar where wildland meets homes and population and there is still concern for large wildland fires.

This strategy helps the county pinpoint locations to prescribe fuels treatments. Bastrop County contracts with a pool of private companies for detailed fuel mapping, fire behavior modeling and fuel reduction.

Tahitian Village, having been identified as a high-risk area for wildfire, recently conducted fuel reduction projects — potentially saving the subdivision from another damaging wildfire.

“Had the area not had the fuels treatment, the pre-fuel conditions coupled with the day’s fire weather gave the wildfire the potential to reach more than 100 acres and get into the west side of the subdivision,” Gray said. “Instead, due in large by the county’s proactive mitigation, we were able to contain the fire to about 5 acres — none of which reached people or homes.”

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For more information visit:

Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management http://www.co.bastrop.tx.us/default.aspx?name=em.home 

Bastrop County Fuels Mitigation Project https://bascogis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d0d2334fa9a841a9b837cb542e595e73

Texas A&M Forest Service http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu

FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program http://www.fema.gov/hazard-mitigation-grant-program

Contact:

Michael Fisher, Emergency Management Coordinator, Bastrop County
emc@co.bastrop.tx.us, (512) 581-4022

Rich Gray, Task Force Coordinator, Texas A&M Forest Service
rgray@tfs.tamu.edu, (512) 237-2160

Texas A&M Forest Service Communications
newsmedia@tfs.tamu.edu, (979) 458-6600