Four Full Timers to Staff La Feria’s New Fire Department

by Tony Vindell/LFN

Sometime this year, the residents of La Feria and its surrounding areas will have better coverage when it comes to getting assistance to emergency situations like house or structural fires, vehicle accidents or acts of nature.

That is because the city is now gearing up to have its own fire department staffed with four full-time firefighters, making La Feria one of the first communities with such an entity in the entire Rio Grande Valley.

The city commission received and accepted a grant awarded for $244,193 for the purpose of creating its first ever fire and emergency response department in which its four employees will be paid as opposed to working as volunteers.

The grant money came from a Safe Grant Program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

La Feria’s fire department has 20 volunteers who give part of their time to fight home and structural fires and who respond to other emergencies.

Robert Guerra, assistant fire chief, had said that close to 90 percent of the volunteers work elsewhere and travel from other cities to La Feria when responding to emergency calls.

La Feria has a population 6,000 plus residents and it will become the first small city in the Rio Grande Valley to have its own fire and emergency response department.

Other cities similar and even larger such as Santa Rosa, Combes, Raymondville and Los Fresnos each have volunteer fire departments.