As growth surges across Montgomery County, fire leaders said there is urgency in adding staffing and station coverage—not just new fire trucks.
Conroe Fire Chief Paul Sims said construction is underway on Fire Station No. 8 to help close response-time gaps on the city’s east side. In Montgomery County Emergency Services District No. 2, Chief Brian Edwards said the district is trying to “address it as it grows.” Meanwhile, ESD 3 Chief Keith Soliz said rising calls and traffic keep pressure on response times despite expanded coverage.
The big picture
Concrete crews are gearing up for Conroe’s next fire station—and city officials said the new house can’t come soon enough.
“I ... believe it will improve our response times and workload distribution,” Sims said. “The longest response times are in the future Station [No.] 8 region and the north end of the city.”
Fire Station No. 8 is taking shape on the city’s east side, where new subdivisions and rising call volume have pushed response times longer, Sims said. Sims also said the project is set to be “nearly completed by mid-August.”
Sims said the city is funding Station No. 8 through its capital improvement program. Design and construction total $4.99 million, with $350,000-$400,000 forecast for furnishings and equipment. The station’s engine and related equipment were purchased earlier for about $1 million, putting the all-in price at about $6.4 million.
Meanwhile, in ESD 3, Station No. 31 opened in 2023, replacing the former station, which had been there since 1991. Soliz said the number of facilities now are nearly double what they originally had, nearly 30 years ago.
Diving in deeper
With the surging population comes a higher number of emergency calls in the area. Since 2020, the population has increased by around 15%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Alongside the focus on new stations, officials are looking at staffing as well. Over the past year, both ESDs 2 and 3 have seen an increase in hiring, officials said. Soliz said ESD 3 has 75 firefighters—an increase from 58 in 2022.
“Hiring is extremely competitive right now; there are significantly more departments hiring than there were 10 to 15 years ago,” Soliz said.
Sims said Conroe faces the same squeeze, with growth and development pushing call volume higher. The department has 151 personnel—up from 142 about four years ago.
Also of noteNational Fire Protection Association guidance under NFPA 1710 sets a response time benchmark of 5 minutes and 33 seconds from dispatch to arrival 90% of the time—a bar many fast-growing communities miss, Sims said.
In ESD 2, Edwards said the average response time runs about 6 minutes. In ESD 3, Soliz said the average is about 6 minutes and 36 seconds, with traffic on FM 2854 slowing units at peak times.
The city of Conroe’s challenge shows up in its 90th-percentile data. Sims said CFD’s 2025 dispatch-to-arrival time sits at about 9 minutes and 20 seconds citywide, with the longest times on the east side and the north end of Conroe. He expects Station No. 8 to help, but said it will take about a year of calls to measure the impact.
Sims said if he could choose one resource to add to the department tomorrow to keep pace with growth, it would be additional fire stations.
“Because of our distance, density, call volume and unit availability, which equates to increased response times,” Sims said. “With reduction in response times, this provides better coverage.”
Breaking it downCall volume also keeps climbing, and it’s reshaping how departments plan stations and equipment, officials said.
In ESD 2, calls rose from 3,736 in 2020 to 4,729 in 2022, and reached 5,100 in 2025. In ESD 3, calls jumped from 1,240 in 2020 to 2,236 in 2025.
Both chiefs said new stations help when incidents stack up. Edwards said Station 54 in Walden added staffing, which lets ESD 2 handle two calls at once instead of pulling units from downtown Montgomery.
When asked about the maintenance of newly built stations, Edwards said newer stations have a lot of features “to allow for safer and more efficient operations.”
Soliz said ESD 3’s rebuilt Station 31 added a second staffed truck, keeping response times down when a second call hits that area.
Stay tunedExpansion is on the horizon. Soliz said that ESD 3 plans to break ground on Station 35 in early 2027. Meanwhile, Edwards said ESD 2 is developing a logistics and administration building.
Sims said Conroe’s next projects include station improvements in Grand Central Park and a new station in The Woodlands Hills.
Community Impact reached out to Montgomery County ESD No. 1 for this story and did not hear back prior to press time.
