City of Sour Lake Volunteer Fire Department handles the Sour Lake area and beyond when needed to serve the community. The mission is to prevent or minimize the loss of life, damage to the environment, and loss of property from the adverse effects of fire, medical emergencies, and hazardous conditions.

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When emergencies do happen, the Operations Division responds to, stabilizes, and mitigates them aggressively with well-trained personnel and excellent equipment and fire engines. The Sour Lake Fire Department requires top-caliber firefighters due to the wide variety of possible emergencies in the city for which they have to prepare. They train for all kinds of fire and life safety emergencies that could occur in the city, including medical, wild-land, railroad, pipeline, trench, confined space, swift water, hazardous materials, terrorism, freeway, and structure fire emergencies, among others. There are three volunteer fire departments serving the Hardin County District #5 and Hardin County Emergency Service District #5 is the EMS dispatch for all areas and is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.