Monday, October 5, 2026, 2 p.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Public Safety Committee
The Public Safety Committee approved its August 3, 2026 minutes and a set of corrected prior minutes without objection, with no public speakers signed up. Austin Emergency Management Director Jim Redick and fire and EMS chiefs briefed the committee on the response to the April 2025 propane house explosion in northwest Austin's Greater Hills area, describing confusion over location and incident ownership and later fixes to internal notification and council communication. Redick then briefed members on the City's new ability to send IPAWS wireless emergency alerts alongside Warn Central Texas, regional agreements with Hays, Travis and Williamson counties, and training and monthly testing. Austin Fire Department leaders presented wildfire prevention work, including the wildland-urban interface code updated October 1, 28 firewise communities, 427 structure ignition zone evaluations and community outreach. Members asked about school district coordination, alerting people without phones, insurance incentives, holdout properties and success metrics; all briefings were for discussion only.
0:12 Street, Austin, texas. And we have a quorum present.
0:15 Uh, vice chair, lane Council Member uchin and myself.
0:19 Um, checking for public communication.
0:22 There are no speakers, sir.
0:24 No speakers today. So item.
0:25 Thank you, sir. So, item one, uh, the first action item will be to approve minutes for the
0:29 public safety committee meeting of August 3rd, 2026.
0:32 I will accept a motion and a second, um, without objection.
0:38 The meetings are, the meeting minutes are approved.
0:41 Uh, the section second item will be to approve the corrected minutes for the public safety committee meeting
0:46 on October four, 14th, 2024, September 22nd, 2025, and the special called meeting March 31st, 2025.
0:53 I'll accept a motion and a second, um, without objection, the corrected minutes are approved.
1:00 The committee will now take up item three, a briefing on emergency response to the April 13th, 2025 northwest Austin house
1:07 explosion incident in the, uh, greater hills neighborhood.
1:11 We have, uh, director reddick and, uh, chief vo, uh, chief luri and chief davis.
1:19 I didn't see chief davis in here, but we got the rest of the party.
1:22 So we can, we can soldier on.
1:24 Soldier. Excuse me. Thank you.
1:26 Thank you for being with us.
1:28 Also, thank y'all for all your work this past week.
1:30 Greatly, greatly appreciated.
1:36 Thank you, sir. Um, again, sorry.
1:37 Chief davis. I did not see you over there and I, I, I do not have my glasses
1:40 on. Hi. That's okay.
1:41 I just wanted to let you know that this does not include the Austin police department as this
1:44 was in travis county.
1:46 Thank you, ma'am. Thanks, chief.
1:49 Um, again, jim raddick, the director of, uh, Austin emergency management, here with, uh, chief vokey and chief
1:54 lucr, um, to present on an incident that occurred just a couple weeks into my time here with
2:01 the city. So this is one of my introductory, um, incidents, which really kind of opened my eyes
2:07 to some of the complexities involved with the city versus county versus esds and the like.
2:13 Um, and so there were, uh, uh, several observations, and I'm certainly happy to report that there have
2:18 been significant improvements since then.
2:22 Is this, is this the, thank you.
2:27 Okay. So back on April 14th, 2025, uh, in the morning hours, there was a two story home, uh, that,
2:35 uh, for which there was an explosion.
2:38 And, uh, it was pretty wide ranging.
2:40 So not only the devastation that you see in the previous picture, but other, uh, o other homes
2:46 and residences were impacted as well.
2:48 There were injuries with, uh, uh, that chief lucr will speak to, and some of the damage assessment
2:54 opportunities that we, that we took advantage of to, to glean the true breadth of the disaster afterwards.
3:00 And the cause was propane gas, which we did not know necessarily at the time.
3:06 So obviously the, the first responders did what they did and they did it well.
3:11 So, I'd like to, uh, turn the next slide over to chief vokey, uh, followed by ems chief,
3:16 uh, chief lucre on their response.
3:19 Uh, good afternoon everyone.
3:20 Uh, tom vokey, interim fire chief, uh, on this incident.
3:24 A fd had, uh, members on scene within six minutes and a full compliment on scene within 10
3:29 minutes. Uh, the call is initially dispatched as a structure fire, and we had to adjust the call
3:34 type. But one thing that having initially dispatches a structure fire does is give us plenty of resources
3:40 on scene. Uh, firefighters at the nearby stations actually heard the explosion and were getting dressed and responding
3:46 prior to the call even being dispatched.
3:49 Um, dispatch was obviously given multiple addresses over a mile area, um, and so there was some confusion
3:55 on, you know, where the address was.
3:57 But from, from some of the stations, from two of our stations, they could actually see the smoke
4:01 plume and knew what general direction they were going.
4:03 And prior to arrival, they were able to sort out the address, uh, that they were looking at.
4:08 Um, so one of the things that we did very quickly as we added special operations resources, including
4:14 a special operations battalion, chief hazmat and rescue unit, uh, as well as bringing the shoring and search
4:20 and rescue equipment as well.
4:22 Uh, the first victim was found very quickly.
4:24 It did take some time to expand the search and assess the damage of the entire area.
4:30 Focus originally was on the main house, uh, a fd conducted air monitoring, and it was determined that,
4:36 uh, additional, really one of the things they wanted to do quickly was determine if there was additional
4:40 explosion hazards in the area.
4:41 And they were quickly able to determine that there was not additional explosion hazards in the area.
4:46 Um, there were several small fires that they extinguished at the same time.
4:49 They were removing patients conducting search and rescue.
4:52 Uh, there was more than a dozen response units from a fd along with the additional support and,
4:57 uh, command vehicles that go along with that, uh, as well.
5:00 Um, fire also requested additional travis county ems, uh, resources early on as they, uh, imagined and envisioned.
5:08 There were multiple patients based on the debris field that they were seeing.
5:11 Uh, additional a fd search and rescue was coordinated with Austin, travis county, ems and law enforcement, which
5:17 in this case was mostly a travis county sheriff's office.
5:19 Eventually, a search dog was requested through our, uh, connection with our structural collapse team and used our,
5:25 did provide a search dog for us to do a final search of the area to make sure
5:28 that we had, uh, found everyone in the area.
5:32 Um, and though it was determined early on, uh, where the fin be, though, it wasn't determined early
5:38 on where the final investigation of this, uh, scene would be handled.
5:42 Eventually, it was determined it would be travis county, uh, fire marshal's office that would do the investigation
5:47 because it was an esd four.
5:49 Um, there wasn't a lot of confusion early on in who, who was running the incident.
5:53 Our, our members got there quickly established, uh, you know, the proper, um, command sequence and were able
6:00 to, uh, quickly handle all of the, the small fires that popped up, as well as making sure
6:06 that all the patients were quickly cared for.
6:16 Austin. Travis county ems also responded to the sin incident in support of the Austin Austin fire department.
6:22 Uh, in total, there were seven patients that were treated on scene.
6:25 Uh, four of those were transported.
6:27 One of those was critical.
6:28 Three individuals refused care, um, mostly blast injuries, fractures, and a few other things.
6:33 Um, one thing to note it did as, uh, the chief mentioned.
6:36 Um, you know, this was an area with a lot of debris, roads, uh, debris in the roads
6:41 and elsewhere. And so it did take us some time, uh, to be able to access all the
6:44 area as we worked with the fire department in order to, to clear that debris.
6:48 Um, while we were there in, in, in the, the subsequent time after we treated the initial patients,
6:52 we remained on scene to support the Austin fire department, not just in the search and rescue, but
6:56 also, uh, in the care of the firefighters and others that were, um, operating in some dangerous situations
7:00 with those, uh, unstable buildings and whatnot.
7:03 Uh, we also worked to assist with the reunification of families.
7:07 Uh, a total of 16 units responded, five medic units, which are ambulances.
7:12 We had five, uh, district commanders or supervisors that, that responded.
7:16 Um, those individuals were able to quickly establish a unified can with, uh, the Austin fire department, uh,
7:21 travis county sheriff's office.
7:23 Uh, a pd was also on scene, as well as, uh, williamson county sheriff's.
7:26 Williamson county sheriff, we saw on the scene.
7:29 Um, I myself was there.
7:30 So I do have firsthand knowledge of, of the, uh, the things that occurred on that scene.
7:34 Um, in addition to one of our assistant chiefs, uh, we did participate in a media briefing.
7:38 Um, and that consists of what we have.
7:41 Thank you. Thank you, chiefs.
7:43 Um, and so, and then mass care, 'cause every incident, the number one priority is life safety.
7:48 Uh, american red cross was on scene.
7:50 They came out and they checked on other folks to see if they had any unmet needs, if
7:55 there were any sheltering needs, whatever it was.
7:57 Uh, they were out there to try to ascertain, uh, exactly what those, those needs were.
8:01 And I believe our, our public health department as well.
8:04 Um, and the central texas shelter team was on, placed on alert in case, uh, there were significant
8:09 numbers for, for congregate sheltering.
8:13 So, to, to kind of piggyback on what the chiefs said, and this is really an excellent lesson
8:18 in the incident command system.
8:20 All of those assets that the chiefs had mentioned were very well organized.
8:24 There was a unity of effort, uh, shared situational awareness, uh, and that one team won fight.
8:29 So, while there May be different uniforms, different logos, it's really one team.
8:33 And then there is the emergency operations center that's in support of the incident, whether it's in a
8:39 virtual capacity or physically out of ctec.
8:42 Uh, in this case, it was more virtual.
8:44 We were able to collaborate with the red cross, with the texas division of emergency management, travis county,
8:50 williamson county. Um, and then he, and, and, and you can see that these were all the agencies
8:55 and the logos back as they were in April of 2025.
8:59 Um, we worked with, uh, Austin resource recovery from a debris standpoint, Austin water, from a permitting standpoint,
9:06 Austin energy, in case there were any, uh, residences that were, uh, needed to be disconnected or hooked
9:11 up. And then again, public health from, um, uh, an unmet need perspective.
9:17 And again, this being me, within a few weeks of coming on board, uh, richard mchale and shaa
9:24 rolson, and stuart riley and adrian stir, they were all fantastic in engaging in the conversations, uh, determining
9:32 how they were able to help and really contributing whatever they could, resources, uh, or otherwise.
9:38 Uh, it was really a, a fantastic team effort, um, to, to make sure that we are very
9:44 much in support of those folks who were on the scene and meeting the needs of the, of
9:47 the residences in the area.
9:50 So the observations, um, one of course is that the first responders did what they do, and they
9:57 do it really well.
9:59 Um, so again, it didn't matter if it was in an esd, whether it's in the city or,
10:03 or travis county. The mous are in place that they will respond.
10:07 And again, life safety being the number one priority followed by property protection and then environment.
10:13 That's, that's for every incident.
10:15 Now, there was confusion about the location and who owned the incident, at least from the emergency operations
10:21 standpoint. So, as you can see from the map, it was very close, uh, between district six and
10:27 district 10. Uh, some of the technology on which we relied were telling us it was in one
10:32 council district versus the other.
10:34 Um, and we just didn't really have a mechanism in place to, to really, um, streamline the communication
10:41 from the emergency operations center to the city manager's office, to the council members and the like.
10:47 And, and again, I'll take the hit for that.
10:50 Uh, and that's something that we certainly worked on afterwards.
10:53 And, and a year and a half later, we are in a much, much better place.
10:57 So that that clear line of communication, um, is, is really locked down.
11:02 We have a policy on that, and it's being used pretty much for, uh, every incident.
11:07 And one of the things that we're trying to alleviate is multiple text groups.
11:11 So making sure that we have a teams channel, or if it is a text group, and we've
11:16 been working with, uh, voc as our emergency response platform, uh, to, to figure out what is the
11:22 best tool for that incident, to share information, uh, before, during, and after.
11:27 And of course, residents confusion if there was an another explosion, uh, possibility, and do they have to
11:33 evacuate, and those types of things.
11:35 Um, I think we're in a much better place to communicate internally sharing information, but also with our
11:40 residences as well. So obviously, one of the things that have happened since then is our city logo
11:48 that actually reflects that.
11:49 We're one team now, which doesn't sound like a lot, but, but to me, that's a big deal
11:53 because it does reinforce the one team won fight, not just within our city proper, but we are