Commissioners praise firefighters’ bravery, dedication in recent fires

The bravery and dedication of the firefighting heroes in Gonzales, Smiley, Nixon, Waelder, Ottine and Belmont were warm-heartedly acknowledged by the Gonzales County commissioners and County Judge David Bird during their regular meeting on Monday morning.

“We want to thank all members of the fire department for fighting these fires,” said commissioner Kevin LaFleur. “We also want to thank Ottine, Waelder and everybody else who was out there.”

“Thank you,” Gonzales County fire marshal Keith Schmidt said. “The Delhi fire is still under control. There is still some active fire in that area, but it’s pretty well contained. Bastrop is still burning, obviously. But be careful, as it is extremely dry out there.

“Smiley and Nixon stepped up as well,” Schmidt added. “So did Belmont. They all did a great job of helping us fight these fires. It was definitely a joint community effort.

“I’d like to see if we could all get together and do a debriefing, and just go over the good, the bad and the ugly at your convenience,” Schmidt said. “If we could schedule something, that would be great.”