Pasco County Fire Rescue deployed its Brush Truck Strike Team to North Texas to help fight the Ross Fire, one of the region's largest wildfires on record.
The agency announced the deployment on X on Tuesday, Sept. 1, saying the team is focused on structure protection and fire suppression. Pasco crews are working alongside firefighters from Polk, Hernando, North Port, Marco Island and East Lake.
The Ross Fire has burned at least 90,048 acres across Palo Pinto and Jack counties west of Fort Worth. The blaze was 31% contained as of Sept. 1, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service, CBS News Texas reported.
The fire is the second-largest in North Texas' recorded history, behind the Possum Kingdom Complex Fire that burned 126,734 acres in April 2011, according to the National Weather Service's Fort Worth office, as the Texas Tribune reported.
Firefighters had saved 453 structures as of Sept. 1. But the fire destroyed 157 and damaged 140 more, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The region's drought is fueling the blaze. North Texas had gone 46 days without measurable rain as of Sept. 1, marking the 10th-longest dry streak on record, according to the National Weather Service, the Fort Worth Report reported.
Amy Meyer, a spokesperson for the Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District, described the fire's speed on Aug. 25. "I've never seen a fire grow exponentially this fast in this short amount of hours … This fire is a monster," Meyer told The Dallas Morning News, as Firehouse.com reported.
The Florida deployments were authorized through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), the nation's state-to-state mutual aid system. The exact number of Pasco personnel and trucks deployed to Texas has not been disclosed.
Hernando County Fire Rescue deployed a brush truck staffed by Captain Bedford and Firefighter Barnett on Friday, Aug. 28, the Hernando Sun reported.
Pasco County Fire Rescue has recent wildfire experience closer to home. In June, crews worked alongside the Florida Forest Service to contain a 500-acre brush fire near State Road 52 and Ehren Cutoff in Pasco County. Residents can follow deployment updates on the agency's X account, @PascoFireRescue.
