By Tatum Hearn
When the call for help comes out, it’s natural for Boerne’s first responders to answer. And in recent months, that call has come from across the state and country as members of the Boerne Fire Department have deployed to communities affected by natural disasters.
Assistant Fire Chief Walter Ball, Lieutenant Toby Vicknair, and Firefighters Santiago Anaya and Mark Cross were recently deployed or are currently serving different communities across the country.
Ball was deployed to Emergency Medical Task Force 8 (EMTF) at the State Operations Center in Austin to assist with Hurricane Beryl. The EMTF, a state-operated service, is composed of various specialized teams, including Registered Nurse Strike Teams, Ambulance Strike Teams, and Position Strike Teams, as well as Mobile Medical Units and Medical Incident Support Team (MIST) members.
“Everything looks different based on the community we are in, and it may not be the mission at hand, but it’s all about how we can benefit the Texas citizens who need our help,” Ball said, noting that being helpful and encouraging to the people impacted or displaced by natural disasters is also crucial.
In this capacity, Ball served as a MIST member along with other representatives from around the state, coordinating with field teams and facilitating the delivery of critical resources such as water and mobile medical units.
In February and March, three members of the department deployed to the panhandle to help with the Smokehouse Creek Fire, the largest in Texas history, and the Roughneck Fire. In late July, Vicknair, who leads the Boerne Wildland Fire Team, was called up to help officials in California as they work to gain control of the Park Fire. Additionally, Anaya and Cross have been assigned to West Texas to assist with wildfire activity.
Being deployed to these real-life situations provides insight for these firefighters and allows them to incorporate the new skills they have learned to better prepare themselves for situations that could arise back home.
“How to be better equipped and prepared for our own form of natural disaster was one of the bigger things that I took away from this experience,” Ball said. “Collaborating with the different agencies really allowed for different strategic approaches which was not only beneficial to the task at hand, but to bring home with us as well.”
In each deployment, Boerne firefighters have honed their skills while being a source of help to the communities and crucial support to the local first responders.
