HUTTO — With the pending opening of Hutto’s fourth fire station, Williamson County Emergency Services District No. 3 is one step closer to fulfilling a long-term plan Assistant Fire Chief Rob Bocanegra and Fire Chief Scott Kerwood developed to make sure the agency and its capabilities grew as the city
expanded. “Probably seven or more years ago, (the) chief and I sat down and tried to look at our longrange plan to figure out where our stations were going to go,” Bocanegra said.
“Based on data and what we were seeing from our runs, we knew we were going to need one south of the tracks, that was Station No. 2. Then we allotted for the third one being out in the Siena area because of all of this development, and number four out where we are building right now, in the Star Ranch area.” Fire Station No. 4 is named after Anne Cano, a long-time public servant and civic leader who died in September 2023. The three-bay, 12,000-square-foot station is at 161 Klattenhoff Drive. It is slated to begin service on Oct. 1 or soon thereafter. The cost of the construction, not including fire trucks and equipment, was $6.6 million.
Bocanegra said they have plans for two more stations in the near future, one on the northeast side of town near Chandler Road and another in the southwest toward the industrial growth area. That will result in three stations on each side of U.S. 79.
ESD No. 3, commonly known as Hutto Fire Rescue, is also preparing to build a dedicated administration building on Chris Kelley Boulevard. The project is currently out to bid and has a provisional budget of $7
million. Hutto Fire Rescue was originally headquartered in Fire Station No. 1 in downtown Hutto. The administrative services moved to its current office space at 210 U.S. 79 about five years ago.
“We knew once we got around five or six stations, we’d need an administration building. We had the property on Chris Kelley, but the traffic is so fast on that street, it would be hard to get (the firetrucks) out of the station, so we decided not to put a station there,” Bocanegra said. Instead, they are repurposing the land for an administrative building.
Fire Station No. 4’s location at the edge of Hutto, near Round Rock and Pflugerville, will enhance collaboration with the neighboring cities’ fire departments. The agency has automaticaid agreements with fire departments in Round Rock, Georgetown, Taylor and Pflugerville.
As part of the auto-aid progress, the emergency dispatch operator will contact whichever fire department is closest to the scene of a person requesting help, regardless of city limits or territorial boundaries.
“We have busy days when we can have all of our apparatus out addressing individual calls. But when we have a structure fire, we need help, regardless. … If it’s in the middle of summer when it’s 100 degrees, our staff is going to be exhausted really quick, so we’ll rely on Round Rock, Pflugerville or Taylor to come and help provide staff so we can rotate our crews in and keep them safe, hydrated and well enough to return to the structure fire or whatever it may be,” Bocanegra said.
“Our goal is to provide the best service to the public in a reasonable amount of time. To do that, we have to put the resources closer to those pockets where those incidents are happening so we can get there as quickly as possible. And we’re doing that,” he said.
