The Fire Station One building belongs to the town of Vance, but the volunteers do have another building and can continue to provide fire services to residents outside town limits.

Their frustrations have not been met without sympathy.

“I really do feel sorry they feel that way,” said Vance Mayor Keith Mahaffey. “It was not our intention to make anyone feel that way. I don’t know what we’ve done to create that problem.”

While flying a drone can be fun, there is a practical reason BFD uses them. In addition to being able to survey a fire, the drone can detect the temperature of the flames and be used during public events for patrol purposes.

One of the first situations BFD used a drone for was a recovery mission for a drowning victim on South Padre Island.

“We asked the Coast Guard for permission to use the drone and it was amazing how much it helped us,” Tristan said.

The department is set to immediately begin the process of accepting bids for the constructing of the station, which has received about $3 million in funding and will be supplied with state of the art equipment.

A ground breaking ceremony will take place in December, with development set to begin in early 2018.

It's been said that construction is expected to take 10 months to complete.

In 2015, a fire station committee ranked six recommended sites, all in the middle of the city and near main roads and highways, and the one on Courthouse Boulevard Court was at the top of the list, City Administrator Joe Lynch said.

The city had the triangle-shaped property appraised, but the city council considered it too high and directed city staff to negotiate with two other landowners. When those discussions went nowhere, council members asked for a second appraisal of the first property and “they liked the price point,” Lynch said.