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Bastrop/Travis County ESD No. 1 expands its workforce and training efforts
Eight newly hired firefighters put their skills to the test last week as Bastrop/Travis County Emergency Services District No. 1 expands its workforce to keep pace with rapid growth and rising emergency calls.
The weeklong training marks the district’s largest hiring effort to date, adding six firefighters and two lieutenants to a department that has grown from nine full-time firefighters to 30 in just three years.
The district is working to improve response times and strengthen emergency services across its 200-square-mile coverage area, according to Battalion Chief Eran Denzler.
“As the area booms, it’s not going to slow down. Neither will we,” Denzler said. “We have to stay above the curve and try to get ahead of it.”
The department has also grown from one fire station to three.
The district serves Elgin, McDade and portions of Travis County, including parts of Manor. Its three stations are located in Elgin, McDade and along FM 1704, with two more in the planning stages.
The department now responds to an average of 15 calls a day, compared with about 10 three years ago. Denzler said opening more stations has helped reduce the response times.
“We added the manpower to add more capabilities to our services, medical and rescue,” Denzler said. “That’s the goal. Seconds count.”
During the training, the new hires practiced deploying hoses, advancing lines and preparing to enter simulated burning buildings at Pflugerville’s Fire Station 7 and Training Facility.
The exercises follow what Denzler described as a “crawl, walk and run” approach, gradually increasing the complexity of scenarios firefighters would see in the field.
Denzler said the hiring process was competitive, drawing about 100 applicants. Forty candidates were invited to complete written testing and physical evaluations before the eight spots were filled.
“When they dial 911, it doesn’t matter if they’re in the city or in the country,” he said. “They want the highly trained — they want good equipment and they want us to come save their day.”
ESDs in Texas have their beginnings not only in public safety but politics, taking root in the late 1980s as rural communities sought professional levels of fire protection and emergency medical services that went beyond all-volunteer fire departments.
ESDs are an independent political body funded usually through property taxes or sales taxes.
Although the first came into being in 1949, they were officially authorized by Texas voters in November 1987 with a state constitutional amendment.
The Legislature converted more rural districts to ESDs in 2003 and there are more than 300.
Bastrop/Travis County ESD No. 1 is governed by a five-member board of commissioners approved by voters for staggered four-year terms. Funding comes from property taxes; the headquarters is in Elgin.
