Travis County ESD 13

[garys]

I know that ESD 13 raises taxes and pays Bastrop County EDS1 for fire and first response services. Lately I've been hearing 13xx units being dispatched on AFD TG 1162 which is County Locution for the ESDs when the call is on the Travis County side of the BC ESD1 area.

Does anyone know if those units were recently put in service, there was a call sign change, or if I've just missed hearing them for the past two or so years? I haven't heard them on any of the Bastrop TGs as of yet.

Do they use the AFD Fire Tac Talk groups?

I know that how ESDs work can be complex with the Interlocal agreements.

 

[clementrw]

To be honest, I don't really follow Travis ESDs so much other than ESD 11, but you are right that the ESD 13 dispatches just started happening in the last couple of months. They seem fully integrated, using FIRECOM East for small responses and the S-200 series for larger events.

 

[garys]

Thanks for confirming that I haven't been missing something for two years. ESD 11 is interesting and getting more busy by the week. That whole area is growing pretty quickly. I was down there sight seeing a few weeks ago and there is a lot of construction. That extends into parts of Caldwell and Hays Counties as well.

 

[clementrw]

We are growing down here. The Caldwell/Hays ESD 1 contracted the same fire department as ESD 11, so the department stretches from the airport all the way into a sizable chunk of Caldwell and down the 21 corridor for Hays. So, Uhland's station is 1109, and we have 1107 in Caldwell and 1108 up the road in Niederwald. So, any of the Caldwell or Hays County calls through Travis County dispatch are actually in district and not mutual aid.

 

[N6EV]

@garys Sorry just now seeing this. Bastrop-Travis County ESD-1 changed their callsigns to 13xx units back on October 1st of 2025. As you mention, Travis ESD-13 has an agreement with BTC ESD-1 for service. Back in September 25 there was a note in the BTC ESD-1 Commissioner's notes that they were working toward merging the two ESDs together. The callsign change occurred shortly there after. I have not seen anything indicating that an official merger has occurred.
BTC ESD-1 has recently set up Auto Call with surrounding ESDs. All Travis County calls within their district as well as ESD-13's district are now toned out on the Travis County Fire side.
So in short, you're hearing BTC ESD-1 units with new callsigns. And they do show up on Bastrop's TGs.
Let me know if you have any other questions (Bastrop Feed Provider)
Our FB Group: Facebook
Paul

 

[garys]

Thanks for the reply. October 1 makes sense as that's aabout when I started to notice it. Which about the same time I started to hear dispatches for ESD 11 increase as well.

It took a while to figure out how the mutual aid (Auto Call or I've also heared it refered to as Inter Local) dispatches are done. I'd hear a calll on Travis County disptach, then here it on Williamson County dispatch. Same thing with Hays County.

I found a map of the Bastrop ESD-1 and realized that part of the area was actually ESD 13 and your comments make sense of that.

It's a whole new kind of system from what I was used to in Mass. It took a lot of listening and research on line to understand how ESDs work and to realize that some of them crossed county lines.

Thanks for the link to the FB Group.