State Official Calls For Creation Of Airborne State Firefighting Division

In this handout photo provided by the Texas A&M Forest Service, smoke billows over a road during the Smokehouse Creek fire on February 27, 2024 in the Texas panhandle.

Photo: Handout / Getty Images News / Getty Images

The state's top emergency manager says Texas should create its own firefighting aircraft division. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, made the suggestion on Tuesday to a panel of state lawmakers at a meeting in the town of Pampas, near Amarillo. A series of recent wildfires devastated the Panhandle, and lawmakers investigating the fires decided to hold the hearings in Pampas so victims of the fires could more easily attend them.


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