Focus at Four: How Texas Wildfires get named
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Ever wonder how a Texas wildfire gets named? Erin O’Connor with the Texas A&M Forest Service joined First News at Four Tuesday and explained it’s not all that complicated.
“So it’s certainly not as strict as like when tropical storms or hurricanes get named,” O’Connor said.
Unlike hurricanes, tropical storms, or winter storms which get their names from a predetermined list, wildfires are typically named by the first responder, the incident commander, the dispatcher, or the person that’s first on scene, according to O’Connor.
“They usually base that name off of a geographic location or a landmark near the origin of that fire.”
O’Connor said some fires in East Texas will get a name with a county and a number, “In East Texas, we have more frequent wildfires and they’re also a lot smaller than you’ll see maybe in West Texas or the panhandle.”
“We don’t usually name all of them, and that is simply again. Just because of how frequently they occur. When a wildfire in East Texas grows to more than 100 acres then we do typically name it,” O’Connor said.
But as for the fires in the other parts of the state, it really comes down to the whim of the first person on the scene.
“You’ll find a lot of our fire names are typically related to that area of the state, or they’re named after a creek bed or some kind of landmark, but you will find that when we’re busy, sometimes our incident commanders or our firefighters will just make a list of maybe a topic they’re interested in,” O’Connor said.
There are some rules though. The Forest Service will avoid using the word “dead” in any names and fires won’t get named after catastrophic events. The Forest Service will also avoid using any person’s private property names, company and business names.
But O’Connor said there is one thing to keep in mind when it comes to a wildfire name.
“Even though sometimes they can come across a little silly wildfires are not to be taken lightly.”
