🚨 AUSTIN FIRE CHIEF REFUSED TO SEND RESCUE TEAMS BEFORE DEADLY TEXAS FLOODS - OVER AN $800,000 PAYBACK DISPUTE
119 dead.
27 of them children.
The state asked Austin for help.
Chief Joel G. Baker said no.
According to reports, Baker declined to deploy Austin’s elite flood rescue teams to Kerr County, allegedly because Texas still owed the department $800K from previous missions.
The result?
Entire towns were underwater while Austin’s crews sat grounded.
Now, Baker faces a vote of no confidence from his own firefighters.
This is the same chief who, in a 2020 interview, said:
“What’s important is that I’m not the last African American fire chief.”
He emphasized diversity goals early and often. Critics say disaster readiness was never part of the conversation.
No one is blaming diversity for the disaster.
But when rescue teams are withheld, and 100+ people die, leadership decisions deserve scrutiny.
The state begged for help.
He didn’t send it.
And now the body count is rising.
Sources: Fox 7 Austin, The Texan, Alliance Defending Freedom, Austin Firefighters Association