COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — Texas A&M Forest Service is now operating out of a new and improved emergency operations center -- which should improve the agency's ability to protect Texas from natural disasters.
- The Forest Service expanded the center's capacity from eight to 24 workstations.
- The center is also packed with the latest tech to keep a watch on wildfires, track resources, and work seamlessly with other agencies during emergencies.
- In 2024, more than 4,000 wildfires torched Texas lands, burning over 1.2 million acres.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"That's something that if you ask anybody in the agency, they're going to tell you that's one of their driving factors is helping Texans, protecting their property, and keeping them safe," A&M Forest Service Deputy Director Wes Moorehead said.
Texas A&M Forest Service recently clicked 'update' on its Emergency Operations Center.
"This is where all of our wildland fire operations are run out of," Moorehead said.
This center is now packed with the latest tech to keep a watch on wildfires, track resources, and work seamlessly with other agencies during emergencies.
"This expansion allows us to have more agency representation not just with the Texas A&M Forest Service, but key partners that make command decisions about where to put resources for wildland fire," Moorehead said.
The Forest Service also expanded the center's capacity from eight to 24 workstations, improving support for more responders and decision-makers.
"That allows us to have more people in here to nexus, to info share, to make sure that they're getting the real-time information from the field," he added.
And wildfires in Texas are no joke.
Last year, more than 4,000 wildfires torched Texas lands, burning over 1.2 million acres.
"Fire's been a part of our ecosystem for millennia. It was here well before man inhabited this country and it's going to be here for the future as well," Moorehead said.
"We experience it literally every day of the year somewhere in the state."
The deputy director for Forest Service told 15ABC that this new facility will be a significant resource for neighbors across Texas.
"I love this business because day in and day out, we are helping people across the state," he said.
"This role that the Texas A&M Forest Service plays allows us to support people, protect people, protect lives and property."
