Highlights from our interview with State Representative Dustin Burrows
Q: Lone Star Standard
What was the damage to the area caused by the fires?
A: Dustin Burrows
We are still trying to get our arms around it. I mean, that’s one of the things we’ve got a lot of facts and figures for. We still have some documents coming in that we asked for. There is obviously the human impact, the loss of lives, the loss of property. We heard devastation ranges from 60 to 70% of the entire county and some of the counties where this happened.
We are going to have a real issue with agriculture. The area these fires happened is dependent on the cattle industry, the beef industry. When those fires came through. I mean, they are basically grass farmers. I think that is what they would tell you. They are growing grass to feed cattle.
In some of these areas, it is going to be two to five years before they can put cattle back there. The fires completely damaged the grass that’s in the area. This is one of the real big financial costs to the wildfires. It’s also a hunting area. There is lots of deer and turkey and other things and many of the hunters and the guides that do this for a living are not going to have anybody to take out in the next two years, maybe three.
Q: Lone Star Standard
What caused the fires?
A: Dustin Burrows
One of the things that we tried to figure out is, what started the wildfires, number one. And then, what did we do to contain the wildfires and then try to get an assessment on what’s going to happen to the people going in the area going forward.
So, when we were talking about the ignition points, there were fire investigations this time by the Texas Forestry Service that determined the cause. It was primarily power lines. Some of those were actually on the main power lines and some of those were where they had taken off from the meter over to the well site for stripper wells, which are usually owned by smaller companies, not the big oil and gas industry. And they had some real issues with that.
Downed power lines and bad electrical wiring going from the meter to the well site ignited these fires. We talked a lot about who oversees pole inspections, who oversees the electric wiring between the meter and the pump jacks, and how pervasive this problem is and has been.
One thing that I don’t think people really realize is how many fires have been started up here since 2006. I think this year alone, calendar year 2024, we’ve had 18 different fires before these ones broke out.
Q: Lone Star Standard
What is the financial impact and who is going to cover the cost of all these damages?
A: Dustin Burrows
You ask a good question - who’s going to pay for it? So, first off, compliments to Xcel energy. In this day and age, we don’t see many companies basically show up on day one and say, look, we did it and we want to start processing claims.
But, ultimately, they are a public utility. And so whatever claims they may pay out, there is potential for rate hikes on the very people who were victims of the fires to cover the increased cost from claims. We talked to them about making sure they don’t ask for a rate increase to help pay for this. I don’t know whether they have insurance for this or not.
There are also many of the ranchers who carry insurance. So, we talked to the Texas Department of Insurance about whether or not they would see premium spikes because of the claim they made outside of making claims to Xcel, or whether or not some of the carriers would actually leave the region. This was kind of an overall theme that I talked to all of the different state agencies about, because it’s all interconnected. In rural Texas we already have declining populations and, now, you have people that have lost everything.
Then, we’ve got local jurisdictions, counties and cities that spent a lot of money fighting these fires and probably realize they need more resources. And they finance that through property taxes. So, they may be looking at increasing property taxes. You have insurance companies that are going to pay out claims that may be looking at rate increases on people in the region. You have utility rates that are set by the PUC, and you have an energy company that’s paying out claims. They may be looking for a rate increase to cover it. This becomes a viscous circle for the people who live up there. They’ve just had everything taken away and they may be facing property tax increases and insurance increases and rate increases at the same time.
Representative Dustin Burrows is the State House member for Texas House District 83. Dustin was born in Lubbock, Texas and was first elected to serve House District 83 in 2014. Dustin chairs the House Calendars Committee and is a member of the House Committee on Elections and Higher Education. Recently, Dustin served on a five-person panel to investigate the cause of, and determine remedies to, the recent wildfires in North Texas.
This interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Listen to the full discussion here: https://texas-talks.simplecast.com/episodes/ep-14-rep-dustin-burrows.
