<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19120"></HEAD>
<BODY style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 15px"
id=MailContainerBody leftMargin=0 topMargin=0 CanvasTabStop="true"
name="Compose message area">
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>I am sure all our hearts,
sympathy, and best wishes go out to Texans in the midst of their
drought and horrific wildfire catastrophes. The pain and misery for people
and animals is hard to comprehend; as is the amount of public and private
property damage.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Some interesting political issues are raised
(some directly, others indirectly) by the news article below.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Perhaps some v2020ers would like to start a
discussion by commenting upon one or more of the issues raised by the
article.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>w.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>___________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=maintitle><B><FONT size=6>Budget cuts hurt fire
effort</FONT></B></SPAN><SPAN class=subtitle><B><FONT size=6> </FONT><BR><BR>785
homes lost to biggest Texas blaze</B></SPAN><BR>
<P align=justify><SPAN class=abody><B><BR><BR>By Ashley Powers and Molly
Hennessy-Fiske</B></SPAN><SPAN class=abody> <BR><BR>Los Angeles
Times</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> <BR><BR>BASTROP, Texas – Beleaguered firefighters
battling one of the most destructive Texas fire seasons on record found
themselves punished not only by searing weather, but by lax brush clearance and
dwindling budgets. With no end in sight to scores of blazes – the largest had
burned 785 homes and was only 30 percent contained Wednesday – fire officials
pleaded for more equipment, and experts urged property owners to do a better job
of protecting</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> their homes.</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> “We
needed resources yesterday,” Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said, noting that he and
Gov. Rick Perry – who was in California for a debate of GOP presidential
contenders – were requesting that the federal government declare the state a
major disaster area.<BR><BR>President Barack Obama called Perry to assure the
governor that requests for additional assistance would be quickly assessed, the
White House said. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency were in
Texas preparing financial assessments to help pay the cost of fighting the
fires.<BR><BR>It is unclear what the federal</SPAN><SPAN class=abody>
government’s share of the cost will be. In the last week, FEMA agreed to cover
75 percent of the expenses of fighting eight fires across the state.<BR><BR>The
Texas Forest Service has been spending about $1.5 million a day on fighting the
fires this week, agency spokesman Gary Lacox said. That does not include
spending by local fire districts and volunteer fire departments.<BR><BR>As state
officials scrambled to summon resources, the magnitude of the wildfires – at
least 122 as of Wednesday – continued to overwhelm even the most
experienced</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> firefighters.</SPAN><SPAN class=abody>
Officials in hard-hit Bastrop County were confident that firefighters would gain
control of the state’s largest and most destructive blaze as winds ease and
residents are allowed back into fireravaged neighborhoods, perhaps by week’s
end. Some residents had done little to prepare for fire. Ken Gold, a battalion
chief from Denton, said residents in a subdivision burned by the Bastrop fire
east of Austin had left homes blanketed in 6-inch piles of pine needles as dry
as matchsticks.<BR><BR>“They kind of let nature be nature,” Gold said. “It
didn’t seem very fire-aware.”<BR><BR>The Bastrop fire forced
thousands</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> of residents to evacuate and</SPAN><SPAN
class=abody> killed two people.<BR><BR>Lake Travis Fire Rescue Chief Jim
Linardos, who worked for years in the North Lake Tahoe area, said Central Texas
faces some of the same wildfire risks as California, but lacks the fire
prevention efforts and resources that help California firefighters immediately
tackle blazes.<BR><BR>He wanted to add two engines to his five fire stations
west of Austin this year, but instead was dealt a 12 percent budget
cut.<BR><BR>“We needed air resources on this fire immediately,” Linardos said.
“We had two helicopters we were sharing with other fires.”<BR><BR>They saved 300
homes, but lost</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> 24.<BR><BR>He noted that Texas fire
district funding is capped by the state at 10 cents per $100 valuation in
property taxes. Linardos said that in Lake Tahoe, Nev., where he served as fire
chief, he had five times the funding. State Sen. Kirk Watson, an Austin
Democrat, has proposed doubling the state funding cap.<BR><BR>Volunteer fire
departments, which cover much of the state, have also faced a 75 percent state
budget cut this year under Perry and the Republican-controlled
Legislature.<BR><BR>When the Bastrop blaze erupted Sunday, residents relied on
nine volunteer fire departments,</SPAN><SPAN class=abody> each staffed by about
30 firefighters, some of whom ended up working 52 hours straight with no air
support, said Mike Fisher, the county’s emergency management
coordinator.<BR><BR>About 77 percent of the state’s fire departments are
volunteer, and 86 percent of their firefighters help pay for their own equipment
and gear, according to the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of
Texas.<BR><BR>Lawmakers nearly doubled funding for volunteer departments to $25
million two years ago, then slashed it to $7 million this year.<BR><BR>“They
weren’t about to say to the people, ‘Let’s raise taxes.’ That’s their future
voters,” said Chris Barron, the association’s executive director.<BR><BR>But
even if firefighters were fully funded, they would still probably be overwhelmed
by the latest spate of wildfires, said Carlton Britton, a retired professor of
range management specializing in fire ecology at Texas Tech.<BR><BR>He said
Texas officials need to do more to encourage fire prevention, including clearing
brush and making controlled burns in the state’s wooded suburbs.<BR><BR>“People
think it’s beautiful, they just think they’re in tune with Mother Nature. And
they are,” Britton said.<BR><BR>“But Mother Nature is going to kick their
butt.”<BR><BR></SPAN></P><BR><BR>
<HR>
<BR><IMG
src="http://spokesmanreview.wa.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/washington/spokesmanreview/20110908/09-08-2011_spokesman_a_4_main_23060004.pdf.0/img/Image_0.jpg"
width=281 height=164><BR><SPAN class=abody>Associated Press</SPAN><SPAN
class=abody><B> <BR><BR>Two firefighters are worn out after battling a wildfire
off Foster School Road near Needville, Texas, on Wednesday
afternoon.</B></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>____________________________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
title="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>