A Little Background On HFD Fire District 68:
District 68 is located in the heart of southwest Houston
Texas and is one of the busiest districts of the Houston Fire Department. It is
home to fire-houses
51, 82, 73, and 68, which also serves as headquarters for the district.
District 68 was originally established in 1976 but was relocated to District 82 in 1998 due to a district re-alignment. Finally, in
2006, District 68 was reformed with its current configuration.
District
68's territory covers the most densely populated area of the City of Houston. Southwest Houston has a population density of approximately 9000 people per square mile, the same that of Baltimore or Washington D.C. This is triple the City of Houston's average of 3000 people per square mile.
There
is a full gambit of residential, commercial, and industrial development, along with one of the busiest, and most deadly freeways running
right through the middle of the district. There are both single-family
residential neighborhoods, as well as numerous low-rise and mid-rise
multi-family residential complexes. Commercial properties range from
big-box style retail to some of Houston's largest car dealerships.
District 68 is home to multiple high-rise commercial and residential
buildings
(HFD Guidelines identify any building 7 stories or 75 feet in height as a high-rise structure), along with twice as many mid-rise commercial and residential properties
. District 68 also has multiple light-industrial parks, as well as a heavy-industrial chemical plant.
District 68 is home
to some of Houston's most desirable inner-city residential neighborhoods as well.
Subdivisions such as Sharpstown Proper, Braeburn Valley, Brae Acres,
and
Maplewood West, which were once the victims of the oil-bust recession of the early 1980's, have now seen a resurgence in
diverse young couples looking to live closer in the city versus the long drive
of the suburbs. Home prices has skyrocketed to a point that these
neighborhoods have once again drawn a distinct line at where the
"middle-class" starts. For all these desirable areas however, District
68 is also home to some of the most dangerous, most impoverished neighborhoods, in the City of Houston.
Maps Of HFD Fire District 68's Primary Run Area:
Apartments, Apartments, and more Apartments..
Something somewhat unique to the south, and especially
Houston, is the ability for cities to grow in all directions. This ability to grow outward, more commonly known as
sprawl,
fueled by the oil boom of the 1970’s created a need for immediate housing for
young single professionals. Most of these young professionals had just graduated from college and were looking to enter the
booming oil field and emerging technology sector. Because there was a housing shortage at the time, developers saw the
opportunity to make a quick return on their investment by building large scale
apartment complexes. These were built all over the city, but the most were
built on Houston’s southwest side.
Neighborhoods like Clubcreek, Westwood, and Forum Park were
created over night as large apartment complexes were built in fields
where
nothing once stood. These complexes were the place to see and be seen
all
throughout the mid to late 1970’s. Unfortunately this would all change
with the
oil bust in the early 1980’s. Almost as fast as these apartment
complexes had
been built, they were nearly abandoned. Apartment managers had no
choice but to
lower the rent in an effort to fill its occupancies.
Fast forward to present day and the apartments that were
once grandiose and home to the young "up and coming" professional - are now run-down, dilapidated,
and home to either the poor, displaced, illegal, and even criminal.
Because so many of these complexes
are month to month rentals, there is little "pride in ownership" to be
found like what is commonly found in residential subdivisions where deed restrictions and neighborhood associations keep affairs in check.
Unlike the other high-crime areas of Houston, the southwest side is unique in that it is also the most
densely populated area of the city. This density comes from its apartment
complexes. In other
parts of the city, its not uncommon for gang members to establish whole
neighborhoods, subdivisions, or stretches of a street as their territory. On
the southwest side however, gangs control apartment complexes instead of
neighborhoods.
Maps Of All Apartment Complexes In Southwest Houston:
*NOTE: SOME APARTMENT COMPLEXES MISSING OR NOT LISTED..
A Typical Week For Firefighters On The Southwest Side:
The southwest side of Houston is
dangerous place, no one will argue that. But just how dangerous is it
to the firefighters that work there? The videos below show
that it can be just as dangerous to firefighters as the citizens they
serve. Most firefighters spend their whole career worrying about dying
one way: in a fire. The firefighters here never know what
they're going to find behind the apartment door of the next run they
make. They never know if they will have a gun drawn on them as they try
to save the life of an assaulted gang member or if they will be caught
in the middle of a sexual assault, robbery, or other crime being
committed in-progress - as they have been numerous times before.
The three videos below were recorded over a one week period just prior
to this page being updated. Let me remind you, this is only one of
fifty-two weeks that the crews of District 68 have endured for the past
twenty years as this area rapidly grew - then rapidly decayed. You can ask any "old head" firefighter that's been here
that long and they will tell that since the oil bust of the early 1980's, it has never gotten better.
Take note that in the final video, a woman enters the scene waving a
loaded semi-automatic pistol. She then walks less that a foot away from
one firefighter, as three-other firefighters are in the back of Ambulance 73 trying
to save a teenage boy who had been shot multiple times in a gang-related drive-by shooting. Also caught in
between the woman with a gun and the safety of armed police officers,
were the exposed crew of Fire Engine 68. Unfortunately, this is not
that rare of an occurrence on the southwest side of Houston.
A Typical Week In Southwest Houston: