“We're coming into fire season, and we have this as a recurring nightmare every year,” Rep. Ken King, a Republican representing Canadian and other Panhandle communities, said during a Nov. 3 committee hearing.
The background
During Texas’ regular legislative session earlier this year, state House lawmakers advanced legislation aimed at helping the state access firefighting aircraft and improving emergency communications for first responders. Both measures died in the Texas Senate, King told the House State Affairs Committee on Nov. 3.
State senators declined to consider a similar emergency communications bill during special legislative sessions this summer.
Texas is always a fire-prone state, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association. The association’s website reports that annual wildfire risk is most severe from February-April, when dry grasses and high winds can cause fires to spread, and August-October, when high temperatures and droughts contribute to fires.
“Our purpose today is to figure out—what is our response going to look like next February and March?” King said Nov. 3. “Are we better prepared as a state after the legislative session ... or are we in the same position we were in 2024, when our response was lacking, to say the least?”
Each of Texas’ 254 counties has been under at least one wildfire declaration this year, Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, told lawmakers Nov. 3. Kidd said that as of Oct. 29, state agencies had responded to nearly 700 fires that consumed about 100,000 acres.
Texas spends about $450,000 per day to prepare for and respond to fires across the state, he said.
Kidd noted that no matter how much money state agencies spend, wildfires can be volatile and difficult to respond to.
“Once we get into very austere conditions from a weather perspective, and the fire takes off, we are always behind the power curve in responding to that,” Kidd said. “It doesn't matter how many aircraft or how many firefighters we put on the ground—with the wrong weather conditions and the wrong temperatures and the wrong fuels, we will always lose that fight until Mother Nature helps us recover with humidities and fire breaks.”
The big picture
In the wake of the Panhandle wildfires, a House committee investigated the fires and released recommendations to “better predict, prevent and respond to future wildfires,” including:
- Allowing Texas to obtain its own firefighting air fleet
- Increasing funding for volunteer fire departments
- Upgrading statewide communications systems
- Incentivizing landowners and residents to practice wildfire mitigation
What they’re saying
As of Oct. 30, there were 39 firefighting aircraft located in Texas, Kidd told lawmakers. The problem, he said, is that just two are state-owned.
Texas accesses other aircraft through contracts with the federal government, officials said Nov. 3—meaning that during peak wildfire season, Texas may have access to limited resources. That was the case when the Panhandle wildfires began in February 2024, King said.
“I don't believe under the Trump administration that they're going to snatch up all our aircraft and send them to the West Coast,” he said. “But if five other states pop off before we do, we're in the same boat—from an aircraft standpoint—we were in in 2024.”
Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, state agencies requested the authority to purchase more planes and execute “exclusive use” contracts with the federal government. Under an exclusive use contract, aircraft would stay in Texas year-round instead of being used in multiple states.
Without those contracts, Texas is “essentially subleasing through the federal government,” King said Nov. 3.
The legislature did not give the Texas Forest Service or other state agencies the authority to enter exclusive use contracts, instead allocating $257 million to the governor’s office for that purpose. Kidd said that process “is not ideal.”
Wes Moorehead, deputy director for the Texas A&M Forest Service, said the state is “more prepared than ever” to respond to wildfires and other disasters.
“We've got people in place, prepositioned, and we're watching the conditions closely,” he told the committee.
Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, said the most important thing is that wildfires are handled quickly.
“I would assume that Texans, myself and other Texans, just want to make sure that if there is a wildfire, it is handled—whether that is through the purchase of an aircraft or the purchase of a contract for an aircraft,” she said.
Moorehead assured lawmakers that would be the case, noting that “either way, we're going to have aircraft on the ground.”
King said the State Affairs Committee would hold additional hearings on wildfire preparedness and response in the coming months, as lawmakers draft policies ahead of the 2027 legislative session. As the legislature is not currently in session, the committee did not consider any legislation Nov. 3.
