Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Granbury VFD honors members for notable service in 2022

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Granbury and Hood County depend on their volunteer firefighters and by all accounts those firefighters are a crackerjack bunch.

At the Granbury Volunteer Fire Department, awards were recently handed out to several of the department’s 35-plus members for their exceptional service in 2022.

Those honored were Landon Drake, Firefighter of the Year; Jesse Slaughter, Chief’s Award; Donnie Hurd, Rookie Firefighter of the Year; and Lowell Ercanbrack, GVFD Member of the Year.

Ercanbrack, pastor of Hope Community Church, serves the GVFD not only as a firefighter but as its chaplain. He has helped the department in other areas as well, such as enlisting churches to feed the GVFD’s largest-ever Fire Academy class last year.

In speaking to the Hood County News, the pastor, who has volunteered with the GVFD for the past four years, praised his fellow firefighters for dedication and expertise that benefit not just Hood County but surrounding counties as well. Some of the GVFD’s members work or worked at large fire departments, he said.

Ercanbrack also noted the department’s diversity.

“We have business owners and we have retired people, young people with huge aspirations,” he said. “There are so many amazing people in the department and they all deserve recognition.”

Last year brought a record number of calls for the department, with an average of 125 calls per month and a response time of less than two minutes, according to Chief Matt Hohon. The department is seeing a call volume increase of 8%-10% every year, he said.