Carrie Stewart, division chief for the Austin Fire Department (AFD) Wildfire Division, told the City Council Public Safety Committee on April 7 that Austin must pursue a three-part approach — fire adapted communities, fire‑resilient landscapes and effective response — to reduce risk and improve recovery from wildfires.

Stewart said the department is updating Austin’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) and an evacuation plan, expanding training, and developing a situational‑awareness platform for public safety partners. "We want balance between all three of those sections within our office and across the city," Stewart said.

The committee heard that most local structure ignitions in wildland‑urban interface events are caused by embers, not direct flame contact. Stewart said, "90% of structure ignitions from a wildland event are from the ember cast," and that emphasis on home hardening and the city’s WUI (wildland‑urban interface) code should be a priority because hardening reduces a home's ignitability.

Why it matters: City officials said Austin should expect multiple, simultaneous wildfire starts on receptive days and that local incidents, even if smaller than some Western fires, can still produce significant loss. That combination — multiple starts, limited local resources and infrastructure vulnerabilities — requires preplanning across departments and with regional partners.

Key elements and near‑term work

- CWPP update and coordination. Stewart said the City of Austin and Travis County will update the joint CWPP during the coming 9–12 months and that the Austin Travis County Wildfire Coalition will lead that effort.

- Evacuation planning. AFD is revising Austin’s 2017 evacuation plan and working with the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSIM) staff and transportation partners to identify phased evacuation approaches, temporary assembly points and communities with single points of entry or exit. Stewart said the department has identified communities with 30 or more homes and one‑way in/one‑way out as a starting point for outreach and phased evacuation planning.

- Situational awareness platform. AFD is building a tool to share live operational information among public safety agencies. Stewart said part of that tool could include a public‑facing view to help with community education.

- Training and operational resources. AFD has expanded a wildfire battalion (Battalion 5) to bracketing stations and is deploying crews statewide through mutual‑aid systems such as TIFMAS (Texas Interstate Fire Mutual Aid System) and the Texas A&M Forest Service. Stewart said AFD completed a two‑year interface training effort to familiarise structural firefighters with urban interface operations and put frontline personnel through nationally recognized wildfire courses.

- Home hardening and structure ignition zone evaluations. The division offers free structure ignition zone evaluations; Stewart said AFD completed about 150 of those evaluations in 2024 and has received over 500 requests since January 2025. She asked councilmembers to help amplify that outreach to constituents.

Costs and scale

Stewart described the scale and expense of mechanical fuel‑break work: Austin has roughly 650 miles of interface, and a shaded fuel‑break approach at an estimated $51 per linear foot would run into millions of dollars. She said the department has shifted its internal fuels crew toward education and assessments while partnering with land managers (PARD, Austin Water, Austin Energy) and ESDs for on‑the‑ground fuel‑reduction projects.

Councilmembers’ questions and concerns

Councilmembers pressed on training opportunities, mutual‑aid reimbursement, dozer staging and the ability to preposition resources. Stewart confirmed crews are trained to request state resources (dozers, strike teams) through Texas A&M Forest Service channels and that prepositioning is coordinated when high‑risk conditions are forecast.

Councilmembers asked about service gaps where neighborhood organizations are less active, notably in parts of the city east of central Austin and in Districts 6 and 10. Stewart said community penetration is stronger on the west side and that the department is seeking community leaders and Firewise volunteers to multiply its outreach in less organized areas.

Stewart also addressed infrastructure concerns following large conflagrations such as Colorado’s Marshall Fire, noting that structure burns can damage water infrastructure and that residents should expect disruption to utilities during major events.

Ending

Stewart closed by asking committee members to help spread information about AFD’s free services and said the updated CWPP and evacuation planning work will inform the next steps for departmental and community preparedness. "We all have a role in that fire‑adapted community," she said.