"Most of the [fire] chiefs in our area have grasped the concept that response times make a difference," Tomball Fire Chief Randy Parr said. "That is the crux of everything we're doing. For us to have as successful of an outcome as possible, we have to get [to the site of a fire] and have to put enough people there to safely initiate an attack on the fire."
Tomball Fire Department
In addition to the two existing stations, TFD has identified a need to construct three new fire stations over the next two to three years to accommodate area growth and reduce wait times for service call responses, Parr said.
"For our location and jurisdiction, the focus and the need is apparent for a total of five stations," Parr said.
TFD is staffed with 15 full-time firefighters, 34 part-time paid positions and 22 volunteers at the two existing stations, Parr said. Once the three new stations are built, the department's goal is to hire three full-time firefighters per shift at each facility, bringing the total to 30 new positions, as well as increasing the amount of volunteer firefighters, he said.
"If we opened up all five stations today, we would have enough [existing] engines and tankers [on hand] to staff them," Tomball Assistant Fire Chief Jon Fontenot said.
For fiscal year 2015, the city of Tomball funds an estimated $2.2 million of the department's $2.3 million budget, with Harris County Emergency Services District No. 15 supplying the remaining $87,000, Parr said. Parr said when he first became Tomball fire chief 11 years ago, the department's budget was $750,000 and has steadily increased in subsequent years.
To help fund additional staffing and equipment needs, the department has applied for and received federal grants from the Department of Homeland Security over the past 10 years. Parr said TFD plans to apply for the same federal grant for $1.6 million in February to fund 12 full-time firefighter, officer and driver positions for the next two years.
In mid-January, the department finalized a new online deployment model planned to assist dispatchers and streamline response times in allocating resources across the 35-square-mile service area, Fontenot said.
Magnolia VFD
In May, voters in Montgomery County Emergency Services District No. 10 narrowly approved a 1 cent sales and use tax increase that went into effect Oct. 1 to better fund MVFD across its 180-square-mile service area. Since Jan. 1, the department has seen a budget increase from $3.6 million in 2014 to $4.9 million in 2015 due largely to the implementation of the sales and use tax increase in ESD No. 10.
"As 35-year vet[eran] of fire service, I know that we will save lives and property as a direct result of the approval of that sales [and use] tax increase," MVFD Fire Chief Gary Vincent said.
MVFD did not have enough funding to staff two of the six existing stations prior to the passage of the 1 cent sales and use tax increase, Vincent said. Since Jan. 1, the department has hired nine additional part-time firefighters to man the two stations and plans to continue boosting staffing levels as funding continues to pour in, he said.
"Most of the [fire] chiefs in our area have grasped the concept that response times make a difference. That is the crux of everything we're doing." —Tomball Fire Chief Randy Parr
With $2 million in existing budget funding, the department and ESD No. 10 plan to construct three new stations by the end of 2015 to ensure more residents will be located within 5 driving miles of a fire station, Vincent said. In addition, two existing stations will receive new fire engines over the next few months, he said.
"The purpose of adding the stations is to improve public fire protection and public safety, as well as to keep the residents' insurance at a low rate," Vincent said. "Failure to provide enough firefighters who can respond within a short period of time with an adequate water supply leads to increased insurance rates for a community."
Unlike the abundant public water system in the Tomball area, Vincent said the Magnolia area is largely devoid of fire hydrants due to the significant presence of privately owned water providers and lack of state regulated water systems. To respond to service calls, MVFD operates nine tankers that carry an estimated 38,000 gallons of water to fires throughout the area, he said.
