Liberty Fire Department marked a century of service on Tuesday, March 19, with the grand opening of its newest fire station, Station 22. Located at 119 Bowie Street on the southwest side of the city, the $6 million facility was funded almost entirely by grants, ensuring that the department can continue protecting the community for generations to come.
Fire Chief Brian Hurst, who has led the department for the past decade, joined Mayor John Hebert Jr., Assistant Fire Chiefs Eric McDaniel and Martin Trahan, Medical Director Dr. Steven Ellerbe, and Battalion Chief Ashley Pate in presiding over the ceremony. Misty Dulaney, the chief’s secretary, organized the event with the help of her fellow firefighters.
The ceremony included two time-honored firefighting traditions: the uncoupling of a fire hose—fire departments’ equivalent of a ribbon-cutting—and the symbolic pushing of a fire engine into the station’s bay. Firefighters gathered together to physically push the engine inside, a ritual that dates back to the days when horse-drawn fire apparatus had to be manually backed into station bays.
During the ceremony, Mayor Hebert spoke about the significance of the new station and its role in the community. He described it as “a state-of-the-art facility” that reflects Liberty’s commitment to public safety.
“This station is designed to ensure swift and efficient response to emergencies and reinforce our promise of protection,” Hebert said. He added that the new facility would serve as both a crucial tool for firefighters and a symbol of the community’s gratitude for their dedication. “Our brave firefighters, who tirelessly serve with unwavering dedication, now have a home that matches their values,” he said.
The $6 million project was made possible through a $5 million grant from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, with an additional $1 million allocated by the City of Liberty. Of that amount, the city only had to contribute $500,000 in matching grant funds.
Hurst emphasized what a significant achievement it was for Liberty to receive the grant.
“I think at the time that we got this grant, they were only given 14 of those grants that were awarded in the entire United States, and the City of Liberty got one of them. That was a feat in itself,” the chief said. “It’s just God working and coming here and placing His diligence on us.”
He credited former City Manager Tom Warner for initiating the process that secured the funding and praised the city’s leadership for its foresight in planning for Liberty’s future.
“Without him starting the project, we never would have gotten that money, and without the forward thinking of the council at the time, we wouldn’t be standing here,” Hurst said.
Hurst noted that while Liberty remains a small community, the region is on the verge of significant growth, citing the 21,000 homes planned for construction just west of the city over the next decade.
“We are a small community, but I promise you, we won’t be small forever,” he said. “It’s going to come here, and I think it’s a great thing that our council is ahead of that curve in allowing us to build and not be behind the curve like a lot of other communities are right now.”
He also explained how the new fire station should improve Liberty’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating, which affects insurance rates for homeowners and businesses.
“We had an audit for ISO back in 2021, and one of the big things that they said is we needed a fire station on this side of the tracks,” Hurst said.
While there had been a smaller satellite station at the site, it lacked offices and proper facilities.
“That building unfortunately had to be torn down to build this fantastic building. But there was a station here—it was just not a usable fire station as this one is,” the chief said.
Expressing gratitude on behalf of the entire fire department, Hurst thanked city officials and everyone involved in making the project a reality.
“We want to thank the council, the mayor, and everyone that had anything to do with this project. We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Absolutely,” he said.
A lighthearted moment
Amid the formalities, Councilwoman Libby Simonson provided a bit of levity when she presented Chief Hurst with a surprise gift—an inflatable boat. As he unwrapped the package and held it up for the crowd, laughter rippled through the audience.
“I went through the accounting process and budget last year, and I requested a lot of different things. I hoped for a lot of different things,” Hurst explained. “When we got through the budget process, I got everything on my list except for one thing that I thought was very important—an inflatable boat for rescue operations.”
Simonson joked that her gift, while well-intentioned, was more suited for backyard pool fun than flood rescues. Hurst will have to pursue funding for an actual rescue boat in the upcoming budget sessions later this year.
A century of service
Hurst then shifted focus to the history of the fire department, which was founded in September 1925 following a devastating fire that nearly destroyed the town. Firefighter Nicole Boudreaux read from a historical newspaper article detailing how the fire department’s first truck came into their possession under unusual circumstances.
The department’s first fire truck had originally been used for bootlegging during Prohibition. In 1928, Liberty’s first fire chief, Bob Martin—who was also a deputy sheriff—was tipped off that a truck traveling through town was carrying illegal liquor. When the driver attempted to cross the river, an accident left the vehicle stranded on the west bank. After being repaired, the truck was intercepted and searched by Martin and other law officers, revealing 1,200 pints of whiskey concealed inside. The truck was seized by the sheriff’s department, and rather than let it go to waste, the fire department repurposed it as one of its first firefighting vehicles. The confiscated whiskey purportedly was dumped onto the ground.
Hurst said the early firefighters had to be resourceful in those days, not only securing their first truck from an unusual source but also scraping together funds for another one.
“The firemen decided that a second vehicle would be necessary, so they gathered donations in the amount of $675 and apparently borrowed another $3,000 in order to purchase a second truck,” Boudreaux said. “Those two trucks were the only trucks the department had up to 1944. By 1950, the old truck was pretty much irrelevant to the past and was entombed at the city power plant somewhere back in the back. The old truck was rolled out of this photograph in the article in January 1950, and at that time the truck had only 4,000 miles on it.”
Reflecting on this history, Hurst said it was fitting that the department was celebrating both its 100th anniversary and the opening of a modern fire station on the same day.
Advancing emergency medical services
Medical Director Dr. Steven Ellerbe spoke about the transformation of Liberty’s ambulance and emergency medical services over the years. When he first moved to Liberty in 1993 and was sworn into the fire department that August, he was surprised by the limited capabilities of the city’s ambulances.
“It was really nicely appointed. It had all kinds of nice gear in it, but it was basic life support,” Ellerbe said. “There were no medications, no IVs, no advanced airway equipment. They were unable to use a defibrillator in cases of cardiac arrest.”
At that time, Liberty had a few paramedics who had gone through the necessary training, but their ability to provide advanced care was restricted. Texas is one of only two states where paramedics operate under a delegated medical practice, meaning that a physician must grant them the authority to administer certain treatments.
“At that point in time, we got together. With the help of those medics, we created some clinical guidelines, standing medical orders, and we recruited the hospital at the time to designate our agencies as satellite pharmacies so we could stock them with the medications we needed to do to offer life-saving care,” Ellerbe said.
The changes quickly elevated Liberty EMS to the level of a Mobile Intensive Care Unit—an uncommon achievement for a city of its size.
“You might not think it, because we are a small city, and we’re a fairly small fire department, but the City of Liberty EMS has absolutely been at the forefront of the EMS practice of medicine,” Ellerbe said. “We have led the way in our region in several ways, and I’m immensely proud of our people. They are absolutely practicing excellent medicine out there. We have absolutely made a difference in people coming home to their families.”
As the event concluded, the focus returned to Liberty’s long-standing commitment to fire protection. The traditions of uncoupling the fire hose and pushing the fire engine into its new bay symbolized both the department’s history and its future. From a bootleg fire truck to a state-of-the-art facility, Liberty Fire Department has grown alongside the community it serves and is poised to meet the challenges of the next century.
More photos from the event:
Those uniforms, lol. Thought the Navy showed up!
$20 says they’ll wear those sweet uniforms all over town on their off hours JUST to let us know how important they are.