Flower Mound firefighters assisting with a huge wildfire in the Texas Panhandle rescued an elderly woman Tuesday from her home, which was already on fire.
Flower Mound Fire Department Battalion Chief Wade Woody and Firefighters Jerry Weems and Brody Roberson recently deployed as part of a Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System strike team assisting with the response to the 500,000-acre Smokehouse Creek Fire, which continues to spread north of Pampa and is 0% contained, as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. During the crew’s 23-hour shift on Tuesday, they were assigned to check a neighborhood near Canadian. Several homes were already on fire, and the crew was making sure that people had evacuated.
At one home, they found an elderly woman who was unable to leave on her own, and the front and rear of the house were already on fire, according to FMFD. Roberson brought her out of the house while Woody and Weems knocked down enough fire to create a safe exit. The woman was safely evacuated, but her home was lost to the fire.
TIFMAS is a state program that utilizes local firefighters from around the state to provide aid when a fire — or other natural disaster, such as a hurricane — is too much for the local authorities. The state reimburses the town for the deployed firefighters’ overtime, as well as overtime required to cover their shifts.
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