Alice firefighters trying to stay cool while protecting the community

• Alice firefighters battled a house fire Thursday morning on Carver Street near Palo Blanco.
• In Alice, the temperature rose to 106 and had firefighters sweating.
• Alice fighters are finding ways to stay cool while working to put out fires.

Flames go up and firefighters head out. Alice firefighters work to stay cool while putting out fires in the South Texas heat. Thursday, Aug. 22, crews put out a fire at a home on Carver near Palo Blanco when an unoccupied home caught fire.

Firefighters responded to the fire and put it out in a matter of minutes. But one of the main factors that firefighters deal with while working is heat exhaustion.

“Heat exhaustion is very tricky. It can sneak up on you really quick,” Alice Fire Chief Patrick Thomas said.

Firefighters deal with the South Texas heat everyday to protect their community. In Alice, at the peak of Thursday afternoon, the temperature climbed to a record high, reaching as hot as 106 degrees.

But despite the heat, when Alice fire crews got paged they responded.

These first responders got to work on the empty rental property wearing all their protective gear which Thomas said can be at least an additional 50 pounds on top of their uniform.

Each firefighter has two objectives: To put out the fire and stay safe. To do so they must be mindful.

“(We also) increase the amount of water that we provide. Changing the types of PPE that they use and to give them options to get the job done with a lighter set of (personal protective gear),” Thomas said.

Matthew Cortez has been an Alice firefighter for four years and always making sure to be on top of his game.

“You got to stay hydrated because it’s very hot. We can go down just as fast as anybody else. We take breaks. We will switch. We will switch personal. We set up a staging area and medics will always be on scene,” Cortez said.

Cortez and his fellow firefighters were drenched in sweat in a matter of minutes. Because of the hot temperatures, Alice firefighters will call for additional help from fire departments in the area to help periodically shift firefighters.

Thursday morning’s fire is still under investigation. Thomas hopes to have a cause of the fire for a few days.

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