Firemen plan for fire prevention week

By Cheryl Johnson, Clarendon Enterprise

During National Fire Prevention Week, October 8-14, firefighters, fire prevention personnel, and teachers across the country will direct attention to the need for fire prevention in the home, on the job, and in fields and forest.

The Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department visited the classrooms at Clarendon Elementary on Wednesday teaching the children about fire safety.  On Thursday, members of the fire department will hold a demonstration with the Jaws of Life at the Clarendon School on the east parking lot after 9 a.m. 

The department will wrap up the week with an Open House at the Fire Station on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.  Refreshment will be served and fire truck rides will be given to the children attending.  The winners of the Fire Prevention Week poster contest will be presented with their awards at the Open House.

The annual fire safety observance commemorates the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but Texans have only to look at the state’s record fire siege this year to appreciate the destruction wildfires can cause. 

The Texas Forest Service estimates that from January through September, 32,000 fires scorched an estimated 630,000 acres in Texas before being controlled by a combination of local, state, and federal firefighting personnel and equipment.

Texas mustered hundreds of local, state, and federal interagency personnel for fire prevention, mitigation, and suppression duties or threat of possibly devastating fire losses in the face of a record drought.  At the height of the fire siege, over 180 Texas counties had bans on outdoor burning in place.  The Texas Forest Service credits ban implementation with helping prevent additional wildfires and property losses.

“Fall normally brings an increase in fire danger, due to increased outdoor activity,” said Jim Blott, state wildland/urban interface coordinator with the Texas Forest Service in Conroe.  “When this increase in outdoor activity coincides with dangerously dry conditions, wildfires become increasingly likely and potentially more deadly.”

Blott suggested several fire safety precautions. 

County Commissioners extended the burn ban in Donley County on Monday.