COUPLAND, Texas (KXAN) — Williamson County Emergency Services District (ESD) 10 has always been a volunteer fire service. But, as of early September, there are now paid firefighters on staff for the first time in its history.
ESD 10 provides fire, rescue and emergency medical response for eastern Williamson County.
However, in the last year alone, it responded to more than 800 calls. That’s a lot for an all-volunteer fire service, Fire Chief Mark Moellenberg said.
“The area is growing, lots of traffic, much more interest in development and growth, right now it’s kind of rural growth,” he said.
While ESD 10 will still rely on volunteers, from Monday through Friday, when most of the volunteers are working their jobs at other fire stations, ESD 10 will have three paid firefighters on staff for 12-hour shifts at a time.
“The level of calls coming in is stretching the limits of what we can do as a purely volunteer organization, especially during the working day,” Moellenberg said.
In 2023, voters approved the adoption of a sales tax and the annexation of part of the
old Taylor Volunteer fire district – which covered much of rural Taylor outside the city limits. The ability to hire day crews is a direct result of these voter approved measures, the chief said.
“We needed something to help enhance the volunteer response during the day during the week,” Moellenberg explained.
An area that was once nothing but farms and fields being transformed into neighborhoods. Something the chief knows will only cause them to get busier.
“When your call volume exceeds what your volunteer force can respond to then you have to do other things, and it’s not indifferent than what we’re doing right now,” he said.
ESD 10 covers 215 square miles, including all or part of these communities: Beaukiss, Beyersville, Coupland, Rural Elgin, Hare, Hoxie, Laneport, Lawrence Chapel, Noack, Norman’s Crossing, Sandoval, Shiloh, Structure, Rice’s Crossing, Rural Taylor, Thorndale, Thrall, Type and Waterloo.
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