After battling historic wildfires in California, North Texas crews are applying lessons learned as critical fire danger looms. NBC 5’s Candace Sweat has the story.
On Friday, all of DFW will be in the zone for critical fire danger. In North Texas, crews that were deployed to help with the historic Los Angeles fires are drawing from their experience there.
The Krum Fire Department in Denton County deployed two firefighters for more than two weeks to assist with the Palisades and Eaton fires in L.A. While the landscape in North Texas is different, officials say one lesson stands out: high winds can change everything in an instant.
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WATCH HEREKrum Fire Captain Hector Hernandez was on the ground for 18 days. What he witnessed will stay with him for some time.
“Kind of seeing fire behavior coming off the Pacific like that, interesting just seeing the kind of damage it can do in such a short amount of time,” he said.
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SIGN UP Hernandez especially remembers how the Los Angeles fires were fueled by dry conditions and very strong winds.
“The more wind we get, the more favorable it’s going to be for fire conditions. So that little spark you have from your welder can take off into a grass fire in no time,” he said. “Once it finds what it likes in terms of fuel, wind conditions, humidity, there’s not a lot we can do on the ground to stop it.”
Michelle Mendoza knows all too well how quickly life can change from shifting winds. She lived with her husband and eight children in Altadena when the fires broke out.
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“I think it took probably about six hours, and then my house was completely destroyed,” she said.
The family of 10 is now in neighboring Pasadena, crammed into a one-bedroom apartment. Mendoza also remembers how powerful the winds were just hours before the fires spread, and she had this message for North Texas.
“It was very windy. It was some branches all over the place,” Mendoza said. “The winds were traveling really far. So, it’s something not to be played with. So, if you do see the winds, try to be really on alert.”
Hernandez said he’s hoping for the best, but Krum and neighboring departments are prepared.
“You kind of look at the direction that the fire is burning in and try to find any natural barriers, whether it’s a body of water, roadways, major highways, see if that’s a major point to stop it at,” he said.
Hernandez said if natural barriers don’t work, the next step would be getting ahead of the fire and starting to dig dozer lines.
