Waco Fire Department hosting new wildfire training for firefighters from across Texas

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Gov. Greg Abbott visited a Waco neighborhood to highlight funding for new first responder training the Waco Fire Department said will save lives and property.

“The City is hosting RTI training, which is Response to the interface,” said Dep. Chief Philip Burnett, Waco Fire Department. It is a new type of training. Basically, new to the United States.”

The idea is to be able to get into neighborhoods that could be close to a wildfire, assess the situation, and have a better chance of saving lives and property.

“This training teaches us and other firefighters, to be able to push this fire away from their house,” said Burnett. “Make decisions in a split second as to whether it’s going to be something where we can save their house and protect their property or, if we need to evacuate and look at for live safety.”

Training, Governor Abbott said, the state fully supports.

“We added funding to it the past session where we provided $600,000 to better train firefighters,” said Gov. Abbott. “We want more and better trained firefighters in the state of Texas.”

You can do this training just anywhere and the folks in the Cameron Park neighborhood were happy to help out.

“It was as easy as a group chat, what do you all think,” said Jeannine McMeans, President of their Neighborhood Association. “It was like yes, yes, yes.”

Yes, because they know they might need their help one day and this training may be key to saving their home or life.

“If their were to be wildfire, our number one goal is to always protect life but we wat to protect their property too,” said Burnett.

Waco is one of the first cities in the U.S. to host this training that is expected to be used nationwide.

The firefighters participating in Waco are being trained so they can go home and train their teams.

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