BURN BAN LIFTED FOR CORYELL COUNTY (4/8/2025)
When a burn ban is NOT in effect, please use the following information:
Burning inside the city limits of Gatesville requires permission from the Fire Marshal. You may request permission by calling 254.216.3444
Coryell County citizens are reminded that all outdoor burning is required to comply with the State Outdoor Burning Rule, Title 30, Texas Administrative Code, Sections 111.201 through 111.221 and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (T.C.E.Q.) guidance, RG-049 dated February 2015.
Citizens are reminded that standard State restrictions remain in effect.
If anyone plans on burning, please contact the Coryell County Sheriff's Office at 254-865-7201 prior to burning. The dispatcher will obtain some basic information, to hopefully prevent unnecessary responses from the county fire departments to your controlled burn.
TCEQ outdoor burning guidelines include:
- Burning can only be done at a time when the wind speed is greater than 6mph and less than 23mph.
- Burning must be done no earlier than one hour after sunrise, and the fire must be completely out no later than one hour before sunset.
- TCEQ rules also state that a fire must be attended by a responsible person at all times during the active burning phase.
- Only dry plant growth generated on the burn site can be burned.
- The following prohibited material cannot be burned:
- Asphalt material
- Chemical wastes
- Electrical insulation
- Items containing natural or synthetic rubber
- Non-wood construction/demolition materials
- Petroleum products
- Plastics
- Potentially explosive materials
- Treated lumber
Please be safe and use caution with any outdoor burning.
T.C.E.Q. rules also state that a fire must be attended by a responsible person at all times during the active burning phase.
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Supporting Documents
The Gatesville Fire Department protects a 287 square mile area of Coryell County. This includes the City of Gatesville, 6 TDCJ prisons (with a population of about 7,500 inmates), and areas surrounding the city. We also have mutual aid agreements with Fort Hood Fire Department, Copperas Cove Fire Department, and the seven area county volunteer fire departments in Coryell County.
The Gatesville Fire Department answers an average of 700 calls per calendar year, with a staff of 33 full time volunteers. We hold training sessions every Tuesday of the month with the exception of the first Tuesday of every month (which is our Business Meeting). These sessions provide an interactive Learning management system, hands on, and classroom training taught by our own certified departmental instructors along with the help of our own apparatus. In those training sessions we generally log over 4,000 total hours a year of training in the 31 Fire Fighting Sections recommended by the State Firefighter's and Fire Marshals' Association of Texas. Members attend many area and state wide schools through out the year. Members are certified through the SFFMA or the Texas Commission on Fire Protection from the Basic level up to the Advanced level.
As we look to the future, we will continue to commit resources to training, allowing for a high level of service being delivered by qualified and trained personnel. We will move forward with maintaining and updating apparatus to enhance the capabilities of our staff, in order to insure the preservation of life and property.
The actual date of the organization of the Gatesville Volunteer Fire Department is not known due to a fire that wiped out the east side of our square and records to this fact. The Fire Department became an official organization on February 6, 1884 when a city ordinance was passed creating a fire unit.
This first public construction of what was called the “Engine House” was built in 1885. The “Engine House” was built for the purpose of housing fire department equipment, an office for the city tax assessor-collector, and a “calaboose”. On this building was a tower that contained the fire bell which notified the town of a fire. The fire bell (which was purchased in 1885 for the price of $69.50) is now housed in a monument on the Coryell County Courthouse lawn and was dedicated on our 100th anniversary in 1984.
The first calls answered by the newly organized “hook and ladder” outfit were at the Rubarth Wells Meat Market and at the Lowe and Mings Lumber Yard.
From that date in 1884 to the present, many men and women have voluntarily given their time, their strength, and in one instance, their life. On a Wednesday afternoon January 19, 1944, while responding to a grass fire in the southeastern part of town, the departments two engine’s, taking different routes, collided at the intersection of Lutterloh and Leon streets. Firemen R.L. Homan’s back was broken, Doug Blackman's shoulder was broken, and 29 year old fireman Aurellous Poston died from injuries he sustained when he and the others were thrown from the fire trucks as they collided.
In January 1990 the Fire Department moved from the fire station located at city hall into their new and present location at 109 South 23rd Street.
