Prior to 1966, the Weatherford Fire Department provided fire and rescue service to the citizens of Greenwood, Texas and surrounding area. For this service, Parker County Precinct-3 paid a nominal fee to the city of Weatherford. In late1965, the city of Weatherford proposed a significant increase for this service to $10,000 annually. Precinct 3’s Commissioner, at the time, thought that the increase was not justified and decided to evaluate whether the citizens of the area would be interested in forming a volunteer fire department to avoid the service fee altogether.
So early in 1966, at the urging of the Commissioner, the initial meeting of potential firefighters was held. In attendance were:
DL Engel, SL Moss, Herbert Walker, Terry Young, Gene Light, Dale Romer, JW Young, Harvey Light, Fred Tucker, and Kenneth Young
The decision was made to proceed and the adventurous band of firefighters, none of which had any experience, set forth on a mission that has lasted thirty-six years. They elected officers and the first chief of the Greenwood Volunteer Fire department was Kenneth Young. Kenneth’s legacy continues today. His son, JW Young, in 2001, celebrated his 35th anniversary with the department. Kenneth’s grandson, John Young, is also an active member of the department.
Precinct-3 gave the group a few hundred dollars to get started and they used the money to buy five government surplus trucks from the Carswell Air Force Base. At that point they had no fire station in which to house the equipment so they convinced a local businessman, to let them house the trucks at his service station near the corner of Jones Road and Ranger highway.
The newly formed department then focused its energies on two tasks….training the recruits on the science of firefighting and transforming the surplus trucks into fire fighting vehicles.
The Greenwood Department has come a long way since 1966.
During the intervening years, the Greenwood Fire Department
has been involved in hundreds of fires and has saved much property and
probably a few lives as well. Today the department is a thriving organization
with about twenty-five members and twenty active firefighters. The following
chart shows the kinds of incidents that the department has handled over
the last several years:
| Type of Emergency | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Structure Fire | 7 | 13 | 20 | 29 |
| Vehicle Fire | 7 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
| Ground Cover Fire | 61 | 48 | 37 | 55 |
| EMS Assist | 18 | 20 | 21 | 25 |
| Rescue | 6 | 12 | 7 | 15 |
| Other | 6 | 11 | 14 | 18 |
| Annual Totals | 105 | 111 | 108 | 153 |
The growing number of structure fires and total calls is an indication of the growth of the Greenwood area. Parker County is one of the fastest growing Counties in Texas and our district is in the fastest growing part of the county.
Recently we joined with four other departments (Adell-Whitt, Cool-Garner, Millsap and Mountain River) to try to form an Emergency Services District (ESD). The election was held May 15th, 2004 but unfortunately the ESD Measure was defeated. Our officers are re-evaluating which course of action we will take in the future and we may try to form the ESD in a future year.
The major issue we face as a department is our operating budget. We are able to solve our equipment needs through the many generous state and federal grants available. However, we, and many other departments are having trouble paying our bills, with limited county support and donations. In the future the department may have to consider some sort of subscription service, or billing mechanism or re-visit the ESD measure.
Currently the department has seven firefighters that are certified by the State Fireman’s and Fire marshal’s Association of Texas. We have an aggressive training program aimed at qualifying all members within their first three years of membership.
The department has been very fortunate in winning grants
the past few years and has acquired many new pieces of firefighting equipment,
among them:
• A 2203 F-550 Brush Truck from the Texas Forest Service (TFS)
• All new bunker gear in a series of grants from FEMA, TFS and the Texas Commission on Fire Protection (TCFP)
• A Compressor and permanent Cascade System from FEMA
• A Thermal Imaging Camera from FEMA
• A new Rescue Tool (Jaws of Life) from TFS
• Updated inventory of Attack hose and Supply Line
• A Cascade /Salvage & Overhaul Trailer from TCFP and the First Responder Institute
• Salvage and Overhaul tools from TCFP
We have also added a fourth bay to the station and
after thirty-five years added a septic system and bathroom. In 2004, a
career firefighter joined the department and he has added greatly to our
training program.
The future of the Greenwood Rural VFD is bright and full
of promise. We are committed to constantly improving our skills and abilities
and we are dedicated to providing the best possible service to the people
of our fire district.