Why now?
CFFD Chief Amy Ramon told Community Impact the expansion is necessary to ensure the department meets population growth with responsible dispatch and emergency services.
“The whole point is to make sure you get the right response [and] the right equipment to the community in a timely fashion,” she said Oct. 21.
Ramon said everything comes down to serving residents as quickly as possible. CFFD has reduced its average response time in the past two years from almost 12 minutes to approximately six, she said, and the department will strive to continue bringing that down as it expands its reach in the community.
The backstory
CFFD announced the expansion in late 2023 after consulting firm Citygate Associates recommended the department add three infill stations in central Cy-Fair and at least five more fire stations in the western and northern parts of CFFD’s boundaries.
The Harris County ESD 9 board of commissioners—a governing body that oversees the fire department—hired Citygate in 2023 to perform a community risk assessment and identify future service needs, Community Impact previously reported.
CFFD Finance Director Mike Abend said Citygate found geographic holes in the department’s coverage, including areas with longer response times, which CFFD then used to select specific plots of land for the new stations. Officials said they also rely on a mapping system driven by artificial intelligence to track development and population growth.
Since announcing the expansion, CFFD has obtained land for six of the stations and is finalizing agreements for two more—Stations 16 and 19. According to a map of the locations, Station 19, positioned across Grand Parkway toward Waller County, will allow CFFD to base responders along the western edge of ESD 9’s boundaries.
Zooming in
Stations 15 and 17 will undergo construction first, officials said. Both stations will cost around $13 million each, which the department will pay for using reserves. ESD 9 has approximately $137 million in reserves as of press time, Abend said.
“We have been diligent about putting money away so that we didn’t have to take out loans or go back to the taxpayers,” Ramon said.
Ramon said the department uses residential population growth of 10,000 individuals and commercial population growth of 5,000 individuals as an indicator that a new fire station should be added to the community.
More than 33,000 new housing occupancies are projected in the Cy-Fair and Cypress areas over the next 10 years, according to an April report from demographics firm Population and Survey Analysts. Many subdivisions near the Grand Parkway, such as Bridgeland, Avalon and Dunham Pointe, aren’t expected to hit full build-out for several years, the report found.
Another detail
CFFD won’t start hiring for Stations 15 and 17 until late 2026, Ramon said. She said the department plans to gradually recruit staff as each station approaches its opening, as bulk hiring usually means sacrificing quality for quantity.
“You don’t want to have to hire 100 people at a time because you still want to pull quality people from your pool,” Ramon said.
Ramon said Oct. 21 the department started a hiring phase over the summer, adding four new dispatchers and 20 firefighters to staff. CFFD is also finalizing numbers for new paramedics and expects to extend offers soon, she said.
CFFD had a record-high of more than 200 applicants this hiring cycle, including candidates from across the country, officials said. Ramon said while they extended more offers this year than in previous hirings, departments in the Greater Austin area are attracting anywhere from 600-1,200 candidates because they hire responders without credentials and put them through school. She said CFFD may consider this in the future to boost its applicant pool.
The department initially projected to open all eight new fire stations by 2031, Community Impact previously reported. However, CFFD officials said several factors, such as transportation projects in Cy-Fair and easement negotiations with developers, could slow construction, potentially pushing past the six-year projection.
The ESD 9 board tapped Martinez Architects, a firm specializing in facilities for fire departments and ESDs, to oversee Stations 15 and 17. Ricardo Martinez, firm partner and project executive, said they’ve been designing stations for CFFD for about a decade.
Martinez said one of the unique challenges of designing a fire station is balancing the technical aspects of the space, such as areas that house vehicles and equipment, with safe living quarters.
“All these different components have to work in conjunction to make sure this is a safe environment for the fire personnel,” he said.
