Texas A&M Forest Service enhances Wildland Fire Dispatch Center

COLLEGE STATION, Texas —Texas A&M Forest Service held an open house at its wildland fire dispatch center in College Station on April 8 and used the occasion to recognize wildland fire dispatchers and highlight enhancements at the center that will strengthen statewide emergency response.

Wildland fire dispatchers, the agency’s “first” first responders, are being celebrated as a part of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which is observed April 12-18.

In addition to honoring dispatchers, the agency highlighted enhancements to the statewide dispatch network that improve capabilities, integrate advanced technology, and increase staffing to better protect lives, property and natural resources across the state.

The College Station dispatch center is one of two agency dispatch centers, with the second located in Lufkin.

Agency dispatchers receive requests for wildfire assistance from agency fire coordinators and through local jurisdiction dispatch centers, including county judges, fire departments and county emergency management coordinators.

“It is important to remember that all emergencies start local and end local,” said Kyle Mills, Texas A&M Forest Service planning and preparedness department head. “Texas A&M Forest Service is a support entity for the state of Texas and our partners. Our dispatch is a coordinating center for incidents that exceed local capacity.”

The wildland fire dispatch and its dispatchers are a crucial, often unseen link between communities in crisis and wildland fire incident responders. Dispatchers manage information and track specialized resources such as air tankers, helicopters, air attacks, engines, dozers and fire crews, coordinating aircraft and complex logistics.

Since wildland fire incidents can last days, weeks or months, the dispatch center manages specialized, long-duration wildfire resources, aircraft and personnel across large, often remote geographic areas through interagency cooperation.

From January to March, Texas A&M Forest Service responded to 611 fires for 91,722 acres statewide. During this same timeframe, dispatch received 11,423 phone calls, equivalent to one continuous phone call lasting nine days and 19 hours.

“Our ability to respond to wildfires depends on three things: coordination, clarity and speed,” said Justin Kendall, Emergency Operations Center state dispatch coordinator for Texas A&M Forest Service.

“By expanding our dispatch capabilities, we are ensuring that when a local fire department requests assistance, the right resources — whether it’s a TIFMAS (Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System) strike team, a heavy bulldozer or a large air tanker — are deployed with maximum efficiency.”

Key enhancements to the dispatch center include:

• Increased capacity for additional personnel to manage the high volume of communications during peak fire activity, ensuring 24/7 coverage.
• Upgraded GIS mapping integrations to provide live data on fire behavior, weather conditions and resource locations.
• Internet and communications redundancy of fiber, satellite and cellular capabilities.
• Power redundancy with a backup generator that ensures continuity during outages.

“Investing in the capabilities of this facility is ultimately about safety,” Kendall said. “The ability to efficiently coordinate, mobilize and demobilize wildland fire resources helps speed up response times, keeping fires small and keeping firefighters and the public safe.”

National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is observed April 12–18, 2026.