When Spring Fire Department formed on April 29, 1953, about 700 people lived in the 250-square-mile region, including areas now incorporated as Humble, Tomball and Conroe. The department now covers only 62 square miles, but more than 150,000 people reside in its service area, with more arriving every year, SFD Chief Scott Seifert said. Cotton Weaver, a former SFD fire chief and one of its founding members, said a group of residents formed the department in response to several large fires like the one that destroyed Immanuel United Church on Border Street in early 1953. The department’s budget in its first year was $800, and fundraising for the all-volunteer company often took the form of livestock sales or donations collected in a fire boot, Weaver said. The department began with 24 firefighters who called each other to spread the word when a fire broke out. “Whoever answered the phone, they wrote down the information on where the fire was, and as soon as the caller hung up, they in turn called 10 other people,” Weaver said. The department now has nine stations, 67 full-time firefighters and about 95 volunteers, Seifert said. Seifert said the department will face population growth in the future with more development expected in Springwoods Village and along the Grand Parkway. Its newest station, located on Springwoods Village Parkway, includes equipment needed to respond to fires in buildings taller than four stories. Previously, there were no buildings that tall in the service area, he said. The department will eventually need an additional station and training facility to respond to the continued growth in the area, Seifert said. The event with the greatest emotional effect on the department was the death of District Chief Michael F. West, who died fighting a fire on March 2, 1985, Seifert said. His death was the only fatality in the line of duty the department has sustained, Seifert said. A statue memorializing West is installed at the department’s administrative building on Louetta Road. Seifert said dedicated, trained firefighters are the core of the department. “I have watched the organization evolve, and I have never seen a more committed bunch of volunteers and paid personnel as the ones we have today,” he said. CORRECTION: The date of the death of Chief Michael F. West was corrected from July 4 to March 2, 1985.