{"id":438329,"date":"2026-09-17T02:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/438329\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T02:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:24:12","slug":"pasco-firefighters-return-home-after-extended-deployment-to-texas-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/438329\/","title":{"rendered":"Pasco firefighters return home after extended deployment to Texas wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. – Four Pasco County<\/a> firefighters are back home after spending more than two weeks battling wildfires in Northern Texas.<\/p>\n

The crew was originally scheduled for a two-week deployment, but the assignment was extended as firefighters worked to contain two large fires and protect nearby homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

Challenging conditions <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Special Operations Captain Bryan Spooner and three other Pasco County Fire Rescue personnel drove to Texas to assist with the 90,000-acre Ross fire in Palo Pinto<\/p>\n

The area had been extremely dry, with no rain reported since July 11.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Pasco County Fire Rescue <\/p>\n

That created challenging conditions for firefighters, including mountainous terrain and limited access to water.<\/p>\n

For their first four days, the crew drafted water from nearby lakes and ponds. On the fifth day, they received a water tender to help with the water supply.<\/p>\n

The firefighters were scheduled to work 12-hour shifts, but worked beyond those hours on all but three days of the deployment.<\/p>\n

Another fire breaks out <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

While battling the Ross Fire, the Pasco crew spotted another column of smoke.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be the Bug Beach Fire, another wildfire the team helped contain.<\/p>\n

Their primary focus throughout the deployment was preventing the fires from spreading to nearby homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

Community support <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Spooner said one of the highlights of the deployment was seeing how the local community rallied around firefighters.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: Pasco County Fire Rescue <\/p>\n

“There was a church there that wasn’t too far from where our location where we were working were, and they would have, you know, breakfast, lunch and dinner there for us,” he said.<\/p>\n

Captain Spooner said rain finally moved into the area Friday, giving firefighters a chance to stand down and begin their trip home.<\/p>\n

Returning home <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The Pasco crew returned Monday and worked its first shift back Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The team was among state and local crews working the Texas fires. Hernando County also sent a team of firefighters, who returned to Florida over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Fire damage costs <\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

It’s unclear the cost of the damage left behind by the Ross and Beach Bug fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Source: FOX 13 spoke with Pasco County Fire Rescue Special Operations Captain Bryan Spooner about the crew\u2019s deployment, the conditions they faced and their return home.<\/p>\n

Pasco County<\/a>Fire<\/a>Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. – Four Pasco County firefighters are back home after spending more than two weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,2683,223,87615,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":["post-438329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-fire","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-pasco","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}