Panhandle Wildfires Investigative Committee to host hearings in Pampa, hear testimony

An investigative committee formed to study the recent weeks-long outbreak of devastating wildfires across the Texas Panhandle will meet during the first week of April in Pampa to hear testimony from the public about the causes and response to the wildfires.

PAMPA, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) - An investigative committee formed to study the recent weeks-long outbreak of devastating wildfires across the Texas Panhandle will meet during the first week of April in Pampa, according to the Texas State House of Representatives, to hear testimony from the public about the causes and response to the wildfires.

The published public meeting notices described that the hearings will be held from Tuesday to Thursday at the MK Brown Civic Center in Pampa, beginning at 8 a.m. on each day.

The committee, which is chaired by Texas District 88 Representative Ken King, will hear invited testimony and accept electronically submitted public comments on multiple topics, including:

• Invited testimony:
  • Factors contributing to the wildfires;
  • Allocation of resources to and effectiveness of wildfire disaster preparedness and response; and
  • Coordination between local, state, and federal governmental entities with regard to wildfire prevention, disaster preparedness, and response.
• Electronic public comments:
  • Factors contributing to the wildfires;
  • Allocation of state resources;
  • Suggestions on mitigation strategies; and
  • Landowner testimony.

The meeting notice detailed that Texas residents wanting to submit comments related to the hearing agenda items can do so here.

As previously noted on MyHighPlains.com, the five-member Panhandle Wildfires Investigative Committee will use the hearings to contribute to the report on its findings that will be submitted by May 1. The report is expected to include recommended legislative solutions for preventing future wildfires and improving disaster preparedness, response, and mitigation.

This committee was formed in the wake of damages wrought by multiple long-burning wildfires that sparked in the Texas Panhandle and High Plains region in the last week of February and the first weeks of March. That group included the "Smokehouse Creek" fire, which is now considered the largest wildfire in Texas history; by the time it was considered completely contained, as noted in previous reports, it had burned more than 1 million acres of land and contributed to the deaths of at least two people and thousands of cattle.

In the wake of the fires, the Texas A&M Forest Service said its investigators concluded that both the “Smokehouse Creek” fire and the neighboring “Windy Deuce” fire were ignited by power lines. Xcel Energy acknowledged in a statement that its equipment appeared to have sparked the "Smokehouse Creek" fire, and Xcel Energy as well as other utility companies are contending with multiple wrongful death and negligence lawsuits brought against them in alleged connection to the wildfires.

The investigative hearings will be live-streamed in this article.