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Above, members of the San Marcos Fire Department, San Marcos Police Department and City of San Marcos break ground on the SMFD Fire Training Center on Friday. Daily Record photos by Nick Castillo

City, SMFD break ground on Fire Training Center

SAN MARCOS FIRE DEPARTMENT
Sunday, October 2, 2022

The sounds of bulldozers clearing land filled the air Friday morning as a patch of land off Airport Highway will soon become home to the San Marcos Fire Department Fire Training Center.

The City of San Marcos broke ground Friday on the facility located at 4710 Airport Highway, which will serve as a training ground for the San Marcos Fire Department as well as the San Marcos Police Department, EMS and neighboring fire departments.

“Our fire department began as an all-volunteer run department in 1884,” Mayor Jane Hughson said. “Times have changed. We are growing at a fast rate and our needs are growing also. We’re breaking ground today on our very own training facility.”

Above, San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson speaks to a crowd gathered at Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony.

Former San Marcos Fire Department Cpt. Jay Horton, who spoke at Friday’s groundbreaking, said he wanted to applaud everyone who made the new facility possible after talks of a training facility were discussed by his colleagues when he began his career as a firefighter 40 years ago.

“The biggest talk around the water cooler and the coffee pot was that we needed a training field more so than a raise because we weren’t paid much at the time. More so than manpower because we were grossly understaffed at the time,” Horton said. “But the guys realized that we needed a place to practice what we do for our own safety and the betterment of the people we served. That was 40 years ago and it’s finally happening.”

The Fire Training Center is being constructed through the 2017 bond package. The training facility will include residential and high rise live fire training, rope and trench rescue, confined space rescue, vehicle extraction, and fire, police and EMS integrated response training.

Phase 1 of the fire training building project was approved by the San Marcos City Council in 2019, which includes the construction of a two-story residential burn building and corresponding site infrastructure improvements. Capital costs for the project are currently estimated at $2 million, according to the City of San Marcos.

San Marcos Fire Chief Les Stephens said he expects the Fire Training Building to be a great asset for the San Marcos Fire Department and neighboring fire departments.

“I’m excited to see [our neighbors] here,” Stephens said. “I hope they’re as excited to come and train with us as we are. We’re in a county where it takes all of us working together. Several times just this week there have been events where all of the county departments have had to come together and work together. That really starts with the fact that we all train together. Our members know their members and so forth. We have confidence in each other’s abilities. We’re going to come [to the training facility] and hone those skills and improve on that confidence that we have on one another.”

Above, San Marcos Fire Chief Les Stephens shares details about the training center.

Director of Public Safety Chase Stapp said Friday marked a great day for both the City of San Marcos and the San Marcos Fire Department “During my short time in this role, I’ve had the privilege of speaking at two, maybe three, groundbreakings for new stations and those are huge accomplishments for our city,” Stapp said. “I feel like we owe it, our community owes it, to our firefighters — to the men and women of the fire department — to give them the best facilities, equipment and training that we possibly can because that’s what they give us day in and day out is their best to protect and serve our community. Today is even more special because the last part of that, the training part of that is really starting to come to fruition.”

Above, Director of Public Safety Chase Stapp tells those in attendance about the importance of the new facility.

Stephens said he’s hopeful everyone can gather again in about eight or 10 months for the facility’s grand opening.

“This will take numerous other phases, likely over decades,” Stephens said. “Likely, I’ll be in the same boat, [Horton] is. I’ll come back for the groundbreaking and be celebrating those success of the people that come after us. But we have a vision, we’ve master planned this entire piece of property.”

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666