The former Grimes garage on Main Street, where Ed and Dee Grimes once answered daylight calls and set off the tones for firefighters while Mary Aloe handled night calls from home, will be torn down to make way for a five-bay garage to house the department's fire trucks.

The department, founded in 1931, has outgrown the current fire station, which was built in the 1950s, with a steel building added in the 1970s. The former garage was recently purchased by the department.

The armada of air tankers -- or DC-10s -- can lay a swath of red fire retardant a mile long and 300 feet wide onto a fire below.

"It can definitely make a difference, we use those to get ahead of what we can't get to," said Captain Robert Ortiz with the Pflugerville Fire Department.

The state previously had only one portable air tanker base, located in Abilene, capable of supporting the large tankers during wildfire events, forcing the state to rely on air bases as far away as Tennessee and Arizona.

"This tanker base represents a monumental advancement in wildfire preparedness for our area," said Rep. Cyrier, whose district was hit hard by both the 2015 Hidden Pines fire and the 2011 Bastrop Complex fire, together burning 39,000 acres and destroying more than 1,700 homes.