Texas emergency management chief believes the state needs its own firefighting aircraft

PAMPA, Texas (AP) — Texas’ top emergency manager told a panel of lawmakers that the state should establish its own firefighting aircraft division after a series of wildfires, including the largest in state history, scorched the Panhandle region this year.

But the local landowners tasked with helping the Legislature investigate the fires that were responsible for at least two deaths and burned through more than 1 million acres raised doubt during a Tuesday meeting in Pampa over the state’s ability to handle such catastrophes.

“We don’t control our own destiny, and I want to control our destiny,” Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, told a crowd of more than 100 people at the MK Brown Heritage Room.

Pampa, a town of about 16,000 in Gray County about an hour northeast of Amarillo, is closer to Oklahoma than the Texas Capitol. Lawmakers decided to hold the hearings there to make it easier for victims of the fire to attend.

“This is not a Panhandle problem. This will have statewide effects,” Republican Rep. Ken King, the committee’s chair, told the mixed crowd of suits and cowboy hats. “We must do what we can to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> In Indonesia, deforestation is intensifying disasters from severe weather and climate change </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Forest fires burn in nearly half of Mexico’s drought-stricken states, fueled by strong winds.