IDAHO — Fire season in Idaho is still — hopefully —a few months away, but conditions in Texas are already ripe for wildfires, prompting Idaho crews to lend a hand.
Terry Zufelt, an Idaho Department of Lands Fire Warden, usually works in Coeur d’Alene, but right now he is leading a strike team of engines in Texas.
“There's over 1,000 firefighters from outside of Texas who are here right now,” Zufelt said.
He explained that Texas is facing dangerous fire conditions across the state.
WATCH | Hear from Zufelt about the situation in Texas and what Idahoans are doing to help—
“Texas is in a pretty high fire danger; they've got a lot of heavy fuel loading because of a wetter fall, winter, so they have a lot of available grasses to burn,” he said.
After Texas requested mutual aid assistance, the Idaho Department of Lands crews quickly mobilized.
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“When Texas called, we just had to empty the barn and do what we could do to fill those 9 engines with 31 people and answer the call to the neighbors,” Zufelt said.
Those 9 engines are currently standing by near Amarillo to deploy anywhere they're needed across the state. Some of them are paired up with a bulldozer team from the Forestry Division of Wisconsin.
This is the second time they've deployed to Texas in the past two years — they also helped out in March of 2025.
While the situation in Texas is currently calm, Zufelt expects fire activity to increase later this week.
“So we're not assigned to any specific fire yet, it's just if one does break and they need additional resources — we'll roll out of here within seconds,” he said.
If a fire does break out, they'll mobilize and attack the fire from inside the burned area — where there is no longer any fuel — so they can safely douse the flames of fast-moving grass fires without being in harm's way.
The Idaho crews are expected to remain in Texas for about the next two weeks before returning home. That should make their total deployment between 16 and 18 days long, including travel days.
