1986 SVFD Building New Fire Station

First Permanent Home

The Southeast Volunteer Fire Department will soon seen construction of its first permanent home since the operation began 15 years ago.

By the middle of June, a 5200-square-foot fire station will be under construction at the end of Hughes Road, in the Sagemeadow Subdivision, said Chuck Tylka, president of the SVFD board.

The structure, to be built at an estimated cost of $130000 will stand on a 15,000 square foot lot donated to the department by Ayrshire Development Corp. 

The new station, to be completed by October of this year, will become the new Station No. 1, Tylka said.  The current station No. 1 is housed in the Scarsdale Subdivision in a building owned by the Scarsdale Civic Association. While the lease on that building will expire in December, Tylka said the department may renew the lease or possibly lease another building in that vicinity. 

We feel like we need to maintain a presence in the area," Tylka said.

The Scarsdale location is not ideal for the primary station, Tylka, said, because it is located in the city, not in the service area, and also because the fire trucks have to frequent the small neighborhood streets.

The department will also continue to utilize a portion of the Sagemeadow Utility District Building on Hughes Road for storage of equipment, the president said.

This will not the first station built by the Southeast Volunteer Fire Department. In 1972 the department build a station on Sagearbor, only to learn that Sagemont was being annexed. In 1973, Houston's Fire Station No. 70 moved into the building.

The volunteer department then moved to its Scarsdale location.

That building, located on the property of the Sagemont Municipal Utility Deistrict was the second major department purchased, preceded by the purchase of a pumper, Tylka said.

By building on land owned by the department itself, there are no fears of having to abandon.

Tylka said he realizes the fire department has a limited life span as annexation inches closer to the unincorporated sections of the South Belt area. But that life span, he said, could last from three to 30 years.

[Side note: the SVFD is going strong some 28 years since this article's publication.]