MEDINA COUNTY, Texas – A group of firefighters who have served the City of Hondo for more than a century is now gone.
Debates over funding, a fire chief and equipment left the Hondo Volunteer Fire Company with a big decision to make. Now, Medina County must pay for it.
One hundred fifteen years of service is on pause.
The Hondo Volunteer Fire Company covered more than 500 square miles for 115 years but no more. The end of the road comes after HVFC President Philip Batteau said they couldn’t get on the same page as Medina County Emergency Services District 6 (ESD 6).
“It’s not money to us,” Batteau said. “It’s the stuff we need. It’s getting my firemen the gear they need.”
“This is taxpayers’ money we’re talking about,” Medina County Emergency Services District (ESD) 6 President Mark Blythe said.
According to the City of Hondo, air packs were a piece of equipment and they couldn’t get the full amount they asked for because of the county’s ESD budget.
“So we look at that and we go through the budget and we make some changes and this year, we cut some stuff out that wasn’t necessary,” Blythe said.
Air packs are used so firefighters can breathe clean oxygen while fighting a fire.
“We don’t even have a current roster of how many members they have,” Blythe said. “Do you need 20? How many people are certified to even use these packs?”
Another item reduced because of the budget was extrication tools, according to Batteau. These tools spread parts of a vehicle apart to pull someone out of a serious crash.
“We wanted another set of tools, and they cost about $60,000. They said, ‘Well, there’s cheaper tools out there,‘” Batteau said. “We understand there are cheaper tools out there, but the tools we wanted to buy integrate with the tools that we have now.”
If a part of the tool breaks, it can be swapped out and can continue to be used.
The two entities also can’t agree on a chief. The volunteer company already has a chief and has a way of voting the chief in, but ESD 6 wants to hire a new one.
It’s unclear if these issues will ever be resolved.
In the meantime, Emergency Services District 1 will provide fire coverage in Hondo.
“There will be no lack in coverage,” Blythe said. “911 calls still should be called in, and they’ll be answered the same. No one’s going to know the difference.”
That is, except for the crew’s size. The volunteer company was a crew of 25 people who volunteered on a call-in basis. When a fire started, the people who were available to be called in responded to the fire.
Now, Medina County ESD 1’s crew of three firefighters must fill that gap. President Blythe said it shouldn’t be a problem because neighboring departments will be available for backup as needed.
“That’s the way it’s been done forever,” Blythe said.
Blythe said the term of this intermediate time of a three-man crew is expected to be six months to a year, giving them time to get a “new chief on board.”
Potentially, Blythe said he would like to start “hiring our own folks or creating a department of our own.”