Oak Hill Regional Emergency Response Training Foundation

The Oak Hill Regional Emergency Response Training Foundation (Oak Hill Fire Foundation) is the not-for-profit organization associated with the Travis County Emergency Services District #3/Oak Hill Fire Department. The Foundation seeks contributions from interested individuals and corporations in order to provide equipment and scholarships for emergency response education and training.

TCESD#3/Oak Hill Fire Department provides emergency fire, rescue, and first responder medical services to approximately 10,000 people living in a 41-square mile area of southwest Travis County, and to those who travel through the area to jobs elsewhere in the Austin area. The Department is staffed with 27 full-time paid career professional firefighters and is supported by 20 volunteers. TCESD#3/OHFD operates the Oak Hill Regional Fire/EMS/Rescue Training Center which includes Mackey Field with a live fire capable, 5 story drill tower, and the very successful Oak Hill Fire Academy. The annual Academy, with a cadet class of up to 36, trains those interested in a career in the fire service to be State of Texas commissioned firefighters and medical emergency first responders. It is the only evening- and weekends-based academy in the Austin area and enables cadets to maintain a job while training for a new career. The Academy draws cadets from the southwest Travis County region and alumni from the Academy are now members of departments in surrounding areas and major cities throughout Texas.

Growth in the central Texas area is increasing the region’s need for career firefighters, who must be Texas Commission on Fire Protection certified. TCESD#3/OHFD has invested in the basic infrastructure for training its own firefighters and also utilizes those facilities for the Academy. Since the ESD is taxpayer funded, it must recoup any costs of the Academy beyond those incurred for its own needs; thus it must charge tuition to cadets who are not district employees or volunteers. The tuition covers the incremental costs TCESD#3 incurs for the instructors and necessary equipment. The Academy unfortunately has had to turn away candidates who did not have the financial resources to pay the tuition.

The Oak Hill Fire Foundation works in cooperation with the Oak Hill Professional Firefighters’ Association, Local 4253, to provide funding for scholarships to the Oak Hill Fire Academy. The Firefighters’ Association conducts the Cohnway Johnson Memorial Softball Tournament each May with all proceeds plus a donation from the Association and the Cohnway Johnson Family funding several scholarships in the Academy.

A donation by you or your organization is high impact. A $4,050 tuition scholarship for a cadet to attend the annual Academy class can change a life.

Donations should be made in the name of the Oak Hill Fire Foundation. OHFF is a Texas non-profit corporation, IRS EIN # 20-8425823, with an IRS 501(c)(3) status.