Reeves County ESD Nos 1 & 2

Reeves County Emergency Services District Nos. 1 and 2 are two Texas emergency services districts — political subdivisions formed under the Texas Constitution and Chapter 775 of the Health and Safety Code — created in August 2019 and operated together as a single combined organization headquartered in Pecos. ESD No. 1 provides fire services and ESD No. 2 provides emergency medical services; each district is governed by its own five-member board of emergency services commissioners appointed to two-year terms by the Reeves County Commissioners Court, and each is an independent governmental entity rather than an extension of county government, funded primarily by voter-approved local property taxes.

The districts cover 2,626 square miles of one of the geographically largest counties in Texas, protecting roughly 17,000 residents along with thousands of transient oil and gas workers and the traffic moving through the county on Interstate 10 and US 285. Operations run from stations in Pecos (Stations 1 and 4), Orla (Station 2), and Balmorhea (Station 3), with a training center and logistics facility on the US 285 corridor; a three-station construction program broke ground in 2022 and Station 4 in north Pecos opened more recently.

The fleet is built for all-hazards, oilfield-heavy response: 3,000-gallon pumper tenders with foam capability, a 100-foot aerial platform, an 85-foot industrial Snozzle apparatus carrying 1,250 gallons for oil and gas incidents, a heavy rescue equipped for hazmat, rope, water rescue, and structural collapse work, brush trucks for wildland fires, and EMS units including MICU ambulances and a multi-patient AMBUS. Fire and EMS crews each work a three-shift A/B/C rotation under shift battalion chiefs, organized into Emergency Operations, Administration, Career Development, and Asset Management divisions.

The districts recruit both certified firefighters and entry-level cadets, with openings posted on an ADP recruitment portal linked from the RCESD jobs page. Certified firefighter hires must hold TCFP Basic Structural Firefighter and Texas DSHS EMT-Basic certifications; postings list DSHS or NREMT EMT-Advanced or Paramedic certification and prior ESD, county, or municipal fire experience as preferred. In 2026 postings, firefighters earn $72,000 to $93,943 a year and cadets start at $54,000.

The Fire Fighter Cadet track requires a high school diploma or GED and EMT certification; cadets pass a written entrance exam, physical agility test, background investigation, interview, physical, and drug test, then attend the fire academy and must earn a TCFP firefighter commission and DSHS EMT certification within an established deadline before appointment as a firefighter. Volunteer positions are also available — applicants download the volunteer application from the jobs page and submit it by email.