HUTTO, Texas — Emergency services are expanding in Hutto. On Wednesday, the city celebrated the grand opening of a third fire station on Limmer Loop – just west of Highway 130 in the Sienna subdivision – with a ribbon-cutting event.
In 2016, voters approved a sales tax to help build new fire stations, buy fire trucks and hire firefighters.
Officials said the new fire station will help first responders improve response times as the city’s population continues to grow.
“When it comes to a medical call, you get there with much quicker time to deliver your medical care,” Hutto Fire Rescue Chief Scott Kerwood said. “Regardless of what community you are in, when it's a growing community, you see that you strategically have fire stations located in the community.”
The station is named after former Fire Chief David “Red” Oman, who served in the department for 28 years. He was known around Hutto as "Red" and did more around the city than just work at the fire department.
“It was quite interesting that for a long time when I was here, I never realized that the individual Captain Red of ‘Captain Red's Catering’ had been Red Oman, the fire chief,” Kerwood said. “And it was quite interesting when I found that out and approached him and said, ‘Hello, Chief.' And he goes, ‘You heard my story.’ He goes, ‘I just sell chicken fried steaks.’ I go, ‘No, you're the fire chief. Once you're a fire chief, you're always a fire chief.’”
Red's family said the new station is built on land Red and his brother use to own.
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