Lampasas Volunteer Fire Department

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Lampasas County, there's a story that starts somewhere in the late 1880s, quiet as a match being struck. Two hose-reel companies and one hook and ladder company.

That's what they had. That's what they started with. No guarantees, no grand ceremony, just a handful of folks who decided somebody ought to show up when things went wrong.

And show up they did. Constantly on call, the marker says, and those two words carry a lot of weight if you think about them long enough. Not occasionally on call.

Not when it was convenient. Constantly. Many serious blazes, fought and faced.

Several disastrous floods, and if you've ever seen floodwater move through Texas hill country, you know the word disastrous is not being used loosely there. These were not small moments. These were the kind of nights that test a town and the kind of people who run toward what everyone else is running from.

But here's the part of this story that might just get you. After all the smoke and the water and the long hard work of keeping a community standing, come Christmas Eve, those big red trucks roll out again. Not for fire.

Not for flood. They carry food and clothing to the needy. Same trucks, same crew, different kind of emergency.

Because some needs don't announce themselves with flames. Some of them just show up quiet on a cold December night. That's Lampasas.

That's what they built, starting with two hose-reel companies and one hook and ladder, all those years ago.

What the marker says

Beginning with two hose-reel companies and one hook and ladder company in late 1880's this department has been constantly on call. Has fought many serious blazes; assisted during several disastrous floods. On Christmas Eve, the big red trucks carry food and clothing to the needy.