In a new episode of The Building Texas Show, host Justin McKenzie speaks with Sisterdale Volunteer Fire Department Chief Brian Reilly about the staffing crisis facing rural fire service. With roughly 70% of America's firefighters serving as volunteers and most departments unable to keep trucks staffed, the conversation highlights a growing risk for the 17,000 people a month searching for homes in the Texas Hill Country, many unaware of the response-time math waiting for them.
Chief Reilly runs a department whose roster floats between 30 and 35 responders across a rural stretch of Kendall County. He is blunt about what preparedness means when the nearest engine is a half hour away. On the illusion that money solves the problem, he tells McKenzie: "We could have 40 fire engines and 100 firefighters there full time. If you're 20 minutes from the fire station and it took 10 minutes to even get dispatched, it's burned for 30 minutes. With modern fuels, all the plastics that are in houses now, your flashover time is like 4 or 5 minutes. It's not 20 like it used to be."
The episode explores why a 4 to 5 minute flashover time in modern, plastic-filled homes cannot be beaten by a 20 to 30 minute rural dispatch and drive time, no matter the budget. It also examines how the Hill Country Fire Coalition, working alongside groups like Team Rubicon, is trying to keep ordinary fires from becoming firestorms, and why the litigious, credential-heavy modern fire service has drifted from the practical, farming-era model that once defined rural mutual aid.
Reilly refuses to let Kendall County residents lean on their good fortune, warning, "There's no reason why the next Bastrop isn't Kendall County... Fortunate is not a plan." The deeper reporting traces how field medicine now accounts for more than half of every department's runs. Reilly recounts his first major interior structure fire, where the only thing left standing was a kitchen refrigerator covered in a family's weekly priority list, all rendered meaningless in seconds. He argues that debris management, fire breaks, and landowner responsibility, once assumed under an older farming ethic, must be relearned by newcomers before the next major event, not after.
The next and final Sisterdale episode will examine why the cedar in Hill Country yards is itself the fuel. The full conversation is available in the episode "Your Volunteer Fire Department Needs You Right Now," released September 28, 2026.
In a related effort to support local volunteers, the Sisterdale Volunteer Fire Department will host its 49th Annual Hunters Supper & Firearms Raffle on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the William "Bill" Whitworth Fire Station, 1207 Sisterdale Rd., Boerne. Supper includes BBQ plates, a Cajun shrimp dinner and homemade desserts, and the raffle drawing is at 8:30 p.m. This year's featured prize is a 2026 Special Edition Custom Sisterdale VFD Henry 30-30 rifle, along with firearms, scopes, knives and more. Tickets are $10, winners don't need to be present, and firearm winners must complete the transfer through a licensed FFL. Proceeds support the gear, equipment and day-to-day needs that keep the station and its volunteers ready, including a new covered bay. Tickets and the full prize list are on the department's Hunters Supper & Raffle page.
