Sisterdale Fire Chief Brian Reilly Predicts a Volunteer Firefighting Renaissance
Chief Brian Reilly of the Sisterdale Fire Department joins The Building Texas Show to mark 50 years of service in Kendall County, Texas, and argues that volunteer fire departments are poised for a renaissance if they abandon the career-service playbook and embrace community membership.
Sisterdale, TX (Newsworthy.ai) Thursday Nov 5, 2026 @ 7:36 AM CST
The Building Texas Show — The Power of Community: Sisterdale Fire Department
“When that pager goes off at 3 in the morning, my first thought isn't, how can I make that person's emergency better? It's, who do I have that's going to this that's going to be by themselves.”
The latest episode of The Building Texas Show, titled The Power of Community: Sisterdale Fire Department, hosted by Justin McKenzie, launches a three-part series on the future of volunteer firefighting in the Texas Hill Country. Published September 28, 2026, the conversation with Chief Brian Reilly marks 50 years of the Sisterdale Fire Department and challenges a prevailing narrative in national media that volunteerism is dying. With 70 percent of America's firefighters serving as volunteers, Reilly makes the case that rural departments are actually primed for a renaissance if they are willing to evolve.
The episode digs into the specific realities of running a small-town department in Kendall County, Texas, and the strategic choices that separate thriving crews from struggling ones. Listeners can expect three central threads:
The Building Texas Show — The Power of Community: Sisterdale Fire Department
“When that pager goes off at 3 in the morning, my first thought isn't, how can I make that person's emergency better? It's, who do I have that's going to this that's going to be by themselves.”
- Why copying the career fire service model sets rural volunteer departments up to fail.
- How Sisterdale rebuilt its bylaws around community membership rather than responder status.
- What it takes to recruit and retain volunteers in an era of virtual pets, AI chatbots, and Facebook friendships.
Reilly is blunt about the psychological pull of real-world work in an increasingly digital age.
"The simple fact is your virtual pet, your AI chatbot, your Facebook friends aren't going to cut you out of the car in the ditch at 3 in the morning. They can't. They're not there."
He also rejects the commodity mindset of academy-trained career departments, telling McKenzie, "The problem with the career model is that it basically says if you're not everything, you're nothing. You are playing a game that you cannot win." The chief argues that a B-team that trusts one another will outperform a roster of specialists every time.
The conversation traces Sisterdale's origin back to founding chief Bill Whitworth, who in 1975 rallied neighbors around a 1956 GMC 2.5-ton military transport truck converted by the Forest Service into a brush rig. Fifty years later, the department leans on the professional depth of its volunteers: social media lead Ashley Taylor, IT professionals, irrigation specialists, land-clearing operators, phone-company linemen, a data analyst (Reilly himself), and even a PhD in emergency management. Reilly recounts the year-long, community-facing process behind the 2018 purchase of a new fire engine, arguing that if he cannot explain the decision to an 8-year-old or a neighbor, he does not understand it well enough himself.
Sisterdale VFD Hunters Supper & Raffle. The Sisterdale Volunteer Fire Department will host its 49th Annual Hunters Supper & Firearms Raffle on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the William "Bill" Whitworth Fire Station, 1207 Sisterdale Rd., Boerne. Supper includes BBQ plates, a Cajun shrimp dinner and homemade desserts, and the raffle drawing is at 8:30 p.m. This year's featured prize is a 2026 Special Edition Custom Sisterdale VFD Henry 30-30 rifle, along with firearms, scopes, knives and more. Tickets are $10, winners don't need to be present, and firearm winners must complete the transfer through a licensed FFL. Proceeds support the gear, equipment and day-to-day needs that keep the station and its volunteers ready, including a new covered bay. Tickets and the full prize list are on the department's Hunters Supper & Raffle page.
About The Building Texas Show
The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, profiles the people, businesses, and institutions shaping communities across the Lone Star State. From volunteer fire chiefs to entrepreneurs and civic builders, each weekly episode captures the grit and vision behind Texas life. The show is sponsored by Chisos Boots. The episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard, with subsequent installments in the Sisterdale series releasing in the coming weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why does Chief Brian Reilly believe volunteer fire departments are poised for a renaissance rather than a decline?
- Reilly argues that despite doom-and-gloom headlines about volunteerism, societal and demographic factors actually favor volunteer departments willing to evolve. As digital life crowds out real human connection, he believes people crave tethering to something tangible. Military veterans, law enforcement, and others who have tasted real-world work often feel untethered without it, making them natural candidates for volunteer service.},{
- What is wrong with rural departments copying the career fire service model?
- Reilly says the career model treats every academy-trained firefighter as a commodity and a Swiss Army knife, demanding that everyone be everything or be nothing. That benchmark is unreachable for volunteers, setting them up to play a game they cannot win. He compares it to an army needing door kickers but also a vast logistics network to support the pointy end of the stick.
- How did the Sisterdale Fire Department get started?
- Founding chief Bill Whitworth rallied neighbors in 1975 after the Forest Service offered to sell them a 1956 GMC 2.5-ton military transport truck that had been converted into a brush truck. Whitworth gathered the money, the community bought the truck, and a couple of years later they built a building to house it. The department is now finishing its 50th year.
- What does 'community membership' mean at the Sisterdale Fire Department?
- Sisterdale rewrote part of its bylaws to clarify that membership in the department is based on community membership, not on being a responder. Being a responder is a role within that membership rather than a separate tier. Reilly says if someone has a desire to contribute, the department will find a role for them, which broadens the recruiting pool considerably.
- Who are some of the professionals volunteering at Sisterdale, and why does that matter?
- The roster includes social media lead Ashley Taylor, IT professionals, irrigation specialists, land-clearing operators, phone-company linemen, business owners, doctors, lawyers, a data analyst (Reilly himself), and a PhD in emergency management. Reilly says every volunteer is a professional in something other than firefighting, and leveraging those outside skills is one of the structural advantages a volunteer department has over a career house.
- How does Sisterdale approach recruiting and onboarding new volunteers?
- Reilly focuses on lowering barriers and being inviting rather than hazing newcomers with menial tasks. New members are not segregated to clean bathrooms or wash trucks to earn their stripes—everyone pitches in together. Reilly notes he often cleans the station bathrooms himself, signaling that no job is beneath leadership and that belonging is not something rookies have to earn.
- Why did Sisterdale spend a year explaining its 2018 fire engine purchase to the community?
- Reilly believes that if he cannot explain a decision to an 8-year-old or to a community member with no fire service background, he does not truly understand it himself. Neighboring chiefs found the community presentation process tedious, but Reilly sees transparency as core to the community-membership model, ensuring residents understand why one alternative is better than another.
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