Western Fire Resources provides 3 important services including wildfire suppression, wildfire modelling, and fuels mitigation. Thank you for visiting our site.
Western Fire Resources provides the premier firefighting resources in wildland fire contracting. With 24 years of federal, state, local, and private firefighting experience, owner Derrick P. Holdstock set out in 2018 to create a company that would be employee-centered and would possess a combination of the best characteristics from the many outfits he has worked for and with. Watch the video to see our BFX Fire Apparatus Model 643U type 6 engines.
Millions of dollars in property are lost annually to wildfires, yet technology exists that can be used to identify where risk is likely to occur and to help design the most cost-effective fuels treatments to mitigate those risks. That is just one of the things Western Fire Resources can do for you. Whether you own property, insure property, or represent a governmental entity responsible for minimizing wildfire risk to communities, we can help you gain a better understanding of wildfire risk and what you can do about it.
Western Fire Resources is your obvious choice for wildland fire fuels mitigation. We specialize in Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fuels treatments to achieve NFPA's Firewise USA standards of home protection. We can also clear fencelines and right-of-ways, as well as install hand firelines for future prescribed fires or general fire protection in terrain not conducive to heavy equipment.
Western Fire Resources strives to be the premier firefighting resource in wildland fire contracting. We know that in order to do this, we must pay attention to every detail and to spare no expense on our equipment and employees.
3 Pillars of Our Business
1) Provide top pay and benefits to our employees, who are our greatest assets.
2) Provide training and advancement opportunities that allow our employees to seek a career in wildland fire, not just short-term employment.
3) Provide our employees with the best and most well-equipped resources on the fireline.
Our Equipment
Our Engine program is based in Canadian, Texas and dispatched in Region 3. Our type 6 engines meet the current US Forest Service specifications for a Model 643U apparatus and are manufactured by BFX Fire Apparatus. Engines have 3-cylinder diesel-powered pumps, automatic foam proportioners, full back seats, and external storage for personal gear bags and line packs. We stock our engines well beyond NUS standards, not just the VIPR minimums, with additional items including AEDs, air compressors, mechanic's tool sets, and additional radios on each engine.
Our Personnel
When you show up with equipment like ours, expectations are high. That is why we are very picky about the employees we select to operate our engines. Our employees all come to us having demonstrated initiative, a strong work ethic, and a strong commitment to excellence in prior endeavors. In fact, we value these qualities over prior fire experience, which is why many of our past rookies got their initial fire training and experience with us. We adhere strictly to NWCG standards for qualifications, experience, and fitness. Our firefighters complete a 2-week critical training prior to each fire season. Trainees are put through not only the required, but also the recommended trainings, and are never fast-tracked. Position Task Books are reviewed by a task book committee consisting of federal, state, local, and private reviewers before being certified.
We realize that requiring such high standards from our employees cannot come without cost to the company, but any investment in our workforce is viewed as a great investment. First and foremost, no employee must enter into any non-compete agreement with us. We prefer to maintain our workforce through providing an amazing work environment, unmatched training and advancement opportunities, top pay and benefits, top of the line equipment, and opportunities outside of fire season such as occasional project work and paid PT to maintain fitness. We must be doing something right because we have experienced zero turnover among our permanent firefighters since 2020. The following are some of the perks our firefighters enjoy.
1) We assign firefighters to engines for the entire season, so there is never a time when someone will be left home wondering if they will be assigned to the next roll.
2) Regardless of how few hours are listed on the shift ticket, our firefighters are paid as if they work 16 hours.
3) Our permanent firefighters are provided a $500+ boot allowance and are outfitted with top-of-the-line equipment, including Mystery Ranch line packs and personal gear bags, personalized Dragonwear Exxtreme Nomex fleece jackets, Stihl MS500i chainsaws, and BFX Fire Apparatus Model 643U Type 6 engines outfitted well beyond NUS standards.
4) Our permanent firefighters are all given annual memberships to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation 52 Club.
5) Our firefighters have access to a company-owned hot tub.
In order to truly understand the effects a wildfire may have on a property, you must understand all of the elements of fuels, weather, and topography that will affect how a fire will burn. Allow us to make sense of it all for you.
It is one thing to understand wildfire risk and another to come up with an efficient plan as to what to do about it. Developing treatments that are specific enough to make the fuel complex burn at the desired, more manageable, intensity, yet not destructive enough to make what is left look like a parking lot, is very difficult without modelling that future risk. That is where we can help you make sure you are not just throwing money at the problem, but rather developing a sound plan.
Whether it is to recreate a past fire or to simulate a future fire under specific conditions, animations provide a visual way to demonstrate fire spread and are a great way to educate people about the danger of untreated fuels. Animations can be run with current fuels and then again on "treated" fuels prior to treatment in order to demonstrate the expected effects. These can be coupled with maps depicting fire behavior as the flaming front passes.
Whether you are just trying to evaluate what holding resources you will need on your prescribed fire or determine how your critical holding points change with wind direction in order to select the optimum conditions under which to burn, don't rely on non-spatial BEHAVE predictions. We can help you visualize your prescribed fire well in advance of that GO/NO GO decision.
Maintaining defensible space is likely the most important thing you can do to protect your property before a wildfire occurs. Who better to help than professional wildland firefighters. Our expertise, gained from years of protecting values at risk from wildfires, makes us uniquely qualified to create defensible space. We are intimately familiar with NFPA's Firewise USA standards and can manage your fuels accordingly. We can also clear fencelines and right-of-ways on ranch and farmland. If planning a prescribed fire and you need some "line punched in", we can create mineral hand firelines with reduced fuels alongside to make your holding duties minimal on burn day. Whatever it is, give us a call and see what services we can offer. Western Fire Resources is most active around Canadian, Texas, but is capable of traveling for projects.
Texas Panhandle communities are no strangers to wildfire. From the East Amarillo Complex in 2006, to the Perryton Fire in 2017, to the Windy Deuce and Smokehouse Creek Fires in 2024, fires that quickly burn 100,000+ acres or more in a single burning period are common. In fact, the Smokehouse Creek Fire burned more acres than any other single fire in the lower 48 since 1910, and it burned these acres in just over 30 hours.
When these fires happen, communities are quickly put at risk. Often, it is unsafe to evacuate citizens, as they would just be putting themselves into the fuels that will soon be burning. City and County officials are often faced with the decision on whether there is enough time for evacuation or whether it would be more prudent to have citizens shelter in place. These decisions are often made with outdated or conflicting information on the location of the fire relative to a community.
Ultimately, the best way to protect property from fire is to create defensible space. While that looks different for an individual property than it does for a whole community, methods and tactics are similar. Being prepared is the first step in the Prepare, Leave Early, or Stay and Defend strategy ( https://wildfiretoday.com/2008/05/30/prepare-stay-and-defend-in-montana/ ) used effectively in Australia and in select communities in the United States. While, individually, this is an important preparedness strategy, being prepared as a community is also important. It can reduce the chances fire will impact structures in town. It can give local first responders a tactical advantage over the fire in terms of behavior. And, it can help city and county officials by increasing the time wedge for decision making that quickly narrows as a fire approaches town.
Western Fire Resources is excited to announce our At-Cost Fuels Management Program for Texas Panhandle communities. Using what we have learned through our close relationship with the City of Borger's Adobe Walls Fire Module and their extremely successful fuels mitigation program, our firefighters will assist local communities in meeting their fuels management goals and Western Fire will only bill for actual payroll, travel, equipment, and supply costs as a way to serve our community and to provide off-season work for our employees. Treatments may include clearing brush with chainsaws, cutting presuppression lines with hand tools where locally-owned heavy equipment cannot operate, piling cut brush for future burning, prepping broadcast prescribed fire units, and supplementing the local jurisdiction with our firefighters and engines should they wish to conduct any fuels mitigation prescribed fires.
Contact us at admin@westernfirellc.com for a free evaluation of wildland fuels in and around your community, and an estimate on what it would cost to meet your fuels management goals.