Fire Prevention / Community Risk Reduction

Travis County ESD No. 6 Adopted Fire Code/Travis County ESD No. 6 Criteria Manual

The Travis County ESD (TCESD) No. 6 Board of Commissioners has adopted the 2021 International Fire Code (IFC) for the District. The City of Lakeway and The Hills have adopted the TCESD No. 6 Fire Code in its entirety. The City of Bee Cave has adopted the 2015 IFC for which we have an agreement to review and enforce per the 2015 IFC. You will find the most up to date version of our Adopted Fire Code and Criteria Manual to help assist you at www.ltfrpermits.com.

Plan Reviews

All plan reviews shall be submitted to www.ltfrpermits.com. Lake Travis Fire Rescue does not accept hard copies of plan reviews. Please allow up to 2 weeks for a review of your submitted plans (typical turnaround time is approximately 4-5 business days).

Inspections

All inspection requests shall be submitted at www.ltfrpermits.com. For the most part, all inspections are different. If you have a particular question concerning any type of inspection, please email LTFR Prevention Division at inspection@ltfr.org and someone will get back with you shortly.

Fire Investigations / Run Reports

You may request a copy of a Fire Incident Report by emailing info@ltfr.org.

Outdoor Burning

Any fire larger than 3×2 is required to have a valid and approved burn permit per the adopted fire code of Travis County ESD No. 6. You may apply for a burn permit by going to www.ltfrpermits.com. You may also view the required burn rules here…..LTFR Open Burning Rules….
Neighbor Control Burn Acknowledgement

Knox Box Ordering

To order any approved Knox product required or requested please go to https://www.knoxbox.com/Products. Please select “Texas”, then in the box below type the words “lake travis”. You will see our department populate, then click “Travis Co ESD #6/Lake Travis Fire Res”.

Community Risk Reduction

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What is Risk Reduction? Risk Reduction in the fire service is defined as “Programs, actions and services used by a community, which prevent or mitigate the loss of life, property and resources associated with life safety, fire and other disasters within a community.” Lake Travis Fire Rescue truly believes that helping prevent or mitigate the loss of life, property associated with life safety, fire, and other disasters within your community is PRIORITY 1. Lake Travis Fire Rescue is proud to be at the forefront of providing our constituents the resources we can to help mitigate and prevent losses.

Wildfire Fuels Mitigation Crew

As a result of the historic wildland fires of 2011, the District approved a pilot program to strategically mitigate the threat of another dangerous fire season. The Fuels Management Program was started in early 2012 to treat targeted areas of our District and reduce the wildland fire threat by a prescription of fuel mitigation.

We started out with a seasonal crew that worked during the non-nesting season for two endangered species of birds in our District – the Golden-cheeked warbler and Black-capped vireo. We hire approximately nine individuals every year with some returning subsequent years to follow. Most personnel come to us with backgrounds in conservation work and/or wildfire, and we have many success stories of men and women growing their career from being part of our program. Many end up fighting wildfire in the western United States and we even have a member who became a Sacramento Hot Shot, the elite in the wildfire world.

Over time our dynamics and structure of the crew have changed. This is due to our ever-changing workforce available, the cost of living and now year-round workload. Starting our ninth season in 2020, we now have moved to employ two full-time personnel who manage a conservation crew we hire for our project work. These individuals also participate in prescribed fires with the Travis County Land Management Division when not on project work.

Project work is primarily installing shaded fuel breaks. A shaded fuel break is by prescription set by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the entity the project is for. The intention is by reducing the amount of available fuel to burn while encouraging a canopy to grow, and the shade will eventually assist in keeping maintenance costs down and lessen the intensity of a wildfire when one occurs.

A typical prescription for a shaded fuel break is: removing ladder fuels (small branches from the main trunk of a tree) to a height of 6′ and removing anything less than 4″ in diameter, concentrating on Ash Juniper (Cedar) and Oak species. All this work is done mechanically with chainsaws and brush cutters. Once the material is cut, it is either chipped on-site and spread, or chipped and removed completely. In most cases, a shaded fuel break extends up to 100′ beyond a residential property and along with adjacent homes.

Topography, access and location made our job particularly difficult when it came to getting equipment onto a project site. A solution that has become the backbone of our operation is having a track-powered remote control chipper. We are able to gain access and work more efficiently than ever.

Wildfire Fuel Mitigation program successes to date:

• Directly educating the homeowners through our work being performed in the areas behind their homes
• Working with communities to remove biomass from around homes and assisting in the disposal
• Helping establish new Firewise Communities (the City of Lakeway became the 900th Firewise community in the nation)
• Working with state agencies and other local governments
• Mitigated 180 plus acres of the area behind homes or adjacent to roadways
• Generated over 3800 cubic yards of chipped material
• Protected over $400 million dollars of assist property value
• Thousands of homes directly impacted by the shaded fuels break and even more indirectly

If you like more information about shaded fuel breaks or wildfire prevention questions, please email us at wildfire@ltfr.org

Wildfire Home Risk Assessments

LTFR offers FREE home risk assessments to help you and your family prepare for the worst. Is your home hardened? Do you have defensible space? Do you and your family have a “To Go Kit?” If you answered no to any of these questions, please sign up for your free assessment today by emailing wildfire@ltfr.org

Firewise Communities

Firewise Communities Firewise USA® is a voluntary program that provides a framework to help neighbors get organized, find direction and take action to increase the ignition resistance of their homes and community. Please email wildfire@ltfr.org to learn more about the program!

Ready, Set, Go! Program

The Ready, Set, Go! Program provides tools and resources for fire departments to use as they help residents gain an understanding of their wildland fire risk and actions individuals can take to reduce that risk. Engaging in this dialogue is particularly important for the fire service as national studies have shown that firefighters are uniquely respected in their communities and can project a trusted voice to the public preparedness appeal. They can also explain what fire resources are available during an event and the role that individuals should play in preparedness and early evacuation – if called for by their local officials – to increase the safety of residents and first responders. Email wildfire@ltfr.org to learn more!

Warn Central Texas

The Capital Area Council of Governments and its partners are pleased to offer an emergency notification system to residents of Central Texas. Registering with WarnCentralTexas allows local officials to contact their communities by phone, email and text during times of disasters or public safety events. Every resident should sign up for this! Please visit https://warncentraltexas.org/ today!

Fire Adaptive Communities

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group defines a fire-adapted community as “A human community consisting of informed and prepared citizens collaboratively planning and taking action to coexist with wildland fire safely.” More fully, fire-adapted communities are knowledgeable, engaged communities where actions of residents and agencies in relation to infrastructure, buildings, landscaping and the surrounding ecosystem lessen the need for extensive protection actions and enable the communities to accept fire as part of the surrounding landscape safely. Because every community is unique, the steps and strategies they take to improve their wildfire resilience will vary from place to place. Please email wildfire@ltfr.org today to learn more about the program!

Public Education

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FREE Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Classes

Lake Travis Fire Rescue offers several options. If you do not need a certificate and want to learn how to do CPR, Take 10 CPR is a great way to accomplish that. Take 10 CPR teaches you how to perform uninterrupted, high-quality chest compressions and review the basic steps of operating an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

If you need a certification card, we teach American Heart Association (AHA) Heartsaver CPR courses that will provide you with a certification card. This course trains participants to perform CPR on adults, use an AED, how to help a choking adult and how to call for help. Optional modules can be included for performing CPR for a child or infant, how to use an AED and how to help a choking child or infant.

Stop the Bleed Classes

Stop the Bleed training gives you the ability to recognize life-threatening bleeding and act quickly and effectively to control the bleeding with three quick techniques.

AHA First Aid Courses

We also teach AHA First Aid Courses. These courses are designed for anyone with limited or no medical training for first aid basics for the most common first aid emergencies, how to recognize them, how to call for help and how to perform life-saving skills.

Fire Station Visits

We always welcome visitors to our six fire stations. If you would like to schedule a visit to your area Lake Travis Fire Rescue Fire Station, please click the following link to schedule your visit.

Fire Safety Squad

The Safety Squad is a public education group comprised of highly energetic firefighters that teach life and fire safety lessons to all area elementary school children from K-5th grade. The Safety Squad, which began in 2005, utilizes popular movie characters and music to catch students’ attention during the performance. Annually, the Safety Squad reaches approximately 10,000 students in the Lake Travis Fire Rescue coverage area. The Safety Squad has performed its program all across the United States and has become a highly recognizable program in fire education.

Fire Extinguisher Training

Lake Travis Fire Rescue provides on-site Fire Extinguisher Training for residential and commercial businesses.

Fire Simulation Trailer

In the fall of 2020, Lake Travis Fire Rescue received a new Fire Simulation Trailer that will be a “State of the Art” training platform for all ages.

Residential Home Fire Inspections

Lake Travis Fire Rescue provides “free” in-home residential fire inspections. Please request at www.ltfrpermits.com.