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- Super Dave
Another large wildfire in Bastrop. Texas Parks & Wildlife was doing a controlled burn and they lost control. 300 acres and growing.
The locals are fighting mad at Parks & Wildlife who's done nothing but make excuses.
People keep saying this and it's dead wrong. Local politicians and locals in general have no control over what Texas Parks and Wildlife does in THEIR PARK. Locals have no authority to even review their burn plan. TP&W creates the plan and burns. The ONLY thing TP&W does with the locals is tell them when the burn will happen.Interesting call to have controlled burns in an area without rain and experiencing wind gusts in excess of 30mph. That area can't catch a break. Our breeder lives a few miles north of town and they are evacuating, they are livid with a few of the local politicians that were behind the burn and are now talking in circles defending it, wild stuff.
Except that it should be the case. Every Prescribed burn must have a burn boss. That's the guy that decided if, when, and what is safe to burn. He's supposed to be experienced and know better. TP&W claims the had 3 experienced burn bosses on the fire, but somehow between the three of them they couldn't make the right decision. Not to mention every firefighter on the burn is empowered to raise concerns. Frankly, having lead burns and been in the fire service for over 2 decades, the machismo, we got this mindset caught up to them.I realize that changing the plans of a bureaucracy is like turning a cruise ship but starting a fire during extreme windy dry conditions is unwise. There are days to burn and days when you absolutely shouldn't.
People keep saying this and it's dead wrong. Local politicians and locals in general have no control over what Texas Parks and Wildlife does in THEIR PARK. Locals have no authority to even review their burn plan. TP&W creates the plan and burns. The ONLY thing TP&W does with the locals is tell them when the burn will happen.
Locals have little to no control over what the state does with it's land. The locals are the ones left to clean up this mess. The county fire departments are the ones they called for help, the ones that spent our time, tax dollars, fuel, equipment, etc... to chase down THEIR fire. W sent our crews to help. They worked close to 36 hours straight, as many were due to come off a 24 hour shift at 6pm last night.
Not the case here as there was no burn ban, but the burn ban laws in Texas allow for prescribed burns EVEN DURING A BURN BAN.
So please, stop blaming the locals for a problem Texas Parks and Wildlife created.
We went camping there two years ago and the land is still quite scared from that last big fire, while smaller trees have started to fill in some of the area, the loss of the oaks will take years to recover.What is it about that patch of woods?
It was just about where it did not look so burned anymore.
Hope everyone stays safe.