Spring Fire District Chief Joel Crenshaw is retiring after more than 30 years with the department he joined as a teenager.

The Spring Fire Department announced Monday, Oct. 12, that it was celebrating Crenshaw's career with a public event. The department did not release details about the celebration's location or schedule.


Crenshaw's career with Spring Fire began when he was still a student at Spring High School in Spring ISD, where he signed on as a junior volunteer firefighter. He never left.

Over three decades, Crenshaw climbed from that junior volunteer role to the top of the department's leadership. In 2017, the department appointed him Deputy Chief of Training, according to department records. By 2023, he held the title of District Chief of Volunteers, overseeing the volunteer corps and presenting commendation awards at annual banquets.

At the department's 2025 awards banquet at Hochzeit Hall in Old Town Spring, Crenshaw presented the Volunteer Firefighter of the Year award to Kevin Lu. "Not everyone would choose to be a firefighter, especially as a volunteer," Crenshaw said at the November 2025 ceremony. "It takes courage, commitment, and consistency."

That focus on mentoring younger firefighters ran through much of Crenshaw's tenure. At the department's October 2024 awards ceremony, he praised a fellow volunteer's dedication, saying the real calling was teaching new Spring recruits how to become Spring firefighters. He also presented the Volunteer Firefighter of the Year award to Darian Goodlander at that event.

The department Crenshaw joined as a teenager has changed since then. Spring Fire was founded in 1953 after a church fire prompted community members to form the Spring Volunteer Fire Association with just 24 members.

It now operates as a combination career-and-volunteer department staffing nine fire stations around the clock. The department serves roughly 168,000 people across 62 square miles of north Harris County, and its operating budget grew from $440,000 in 1990 to nearly $25 million by 2023.

Fire Chief Scott Seifert has led the department since 2015. Spring Fire has not announced a successor for Crenshaw.