The Karnes City Volunteer Fire Department was organized on February 6, 1923, when L.H. Reuser was appointed our first Fire Chief. Within a week, the department had grown to 33 members and raised $1,500 in donations to purchase equipment and build a station. Our first piece of equipment was a two-wheeled hose cart pulled by hand, soon followed by a Model T Ford truck — and just months later, our founding members answered their very first call, fighting a fire at Niehaus Industries with nothing more than that hose cart and a bucket brigade.
More than a century later, that same spirit of volunteer service continues, even as we've grown from a hand-pulled hose cart to a fully equipped, digitally-dispatched department. Explore the full timeline, the traditions we carry, and the people who built KCVFD into what it is today.
