BELL COUNTY, Texas — Central Texas has been dealing with a brutally hot summer that has severely dried out the area.
Even though there doesn't appear to be any smoke in the sky in Bell County, there is still a wildfire disaster declaration in the area.
On Friday, Gov. Abbott issued a wildfire disaster declaration for 191 counties in Texas, and Bell County is on the list.
Even though, like most other counties, there isn’t a raging wildfire in Bell County at the moment.
”It’s consistent with what we’ve seen and what our Fire Marshal has been reporting to the Commissioners Court for the past several weeks,” said the Public Information Officer for Bell County, James Stafford.
“We have a high fire danger right now, and that’s a combination of factors.”
Some of these factors include the lack of rain and the high, summer temperatures this year.
”This is some of the driest weather we have seen in the past couple of years, and the rain — there’s nothing in the forecast,” said Battalion Chief for Temple Fire and Rescue, Chief Mark Engelke.
“We've had some spotty rain showers in the past couple days, but as far as our fire behavior, it hasn’t helped it at all.”
Temple Fire and Rescue has 24 fully qualified wildland firefighters who have more training than others.
”It’s a week-long class. It’s all based around the wildland side of it," Chief Engelke said.
“Fire behavior, topography, weather, and then there's usually a hands-on day where we are out cutting line, shelter deployments — things of that nature.”
With four of their best professionals currently deployed around the state, this new declaration means that those remaining in Temple will have the resources they need if a fire gets too big for them to handle.
”It brings in fire resources, emergency management resources, and actually, the military has come in with some helicopters as well,” Chief Engelke said.
The resources are available, but the community can help them as well.
”We as citizens need to take responsibility for our parts of it,” Stafford said.
“Avoid anything that’s going to create a spark.”
Even though there are no active wildfires here in Bell County, the risk of one is still extremely high, so authorities are asking everyone to be extra vigilant.
