The Biggest Fire Company

[shvfr4]

I've always wondered what the biggest fire department is like. So...

1. Volunteer, Paid, or Combo department?

2. How many apparatuses do you run?

3. How many people belong to your company?

4. How much area do you cover?


As for me...

1. Volunteer

2. 8 rigs, 1 command car, 1 trailer= 10 appartuses

3. 60+ members

4. 25+ square miles

[DrParasite]

If I were to take a guess, I would say FDNY was the largest paid department.

[hwoods]

Easy...... CDF Fire. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Covers most of the State. I have no clue on amount of Apparatus or People though.

[CitriusMonkey]

In reguards to one single station... 1 rescue, 2 pumpers, 1 tanker, 1 brush truck, 1 command vehical, 1 argo (8 wheeled) 1 safety trailer 25 part pait, 8 fulltime.

So 8 Apparatuses, 33 guys and 1 chief.

[hwoods]

OK...... Vehicles: 1 Fire Engine, 1 Rescue Engine, 1 Heavy Rescue, 1 Tower Ladder, 1 Brush Truck, 1 BLS Ambulance, 1 ALS Ambulance, 1 Antique engine, 3 Command Vehicles, 1 Riding Lawnmower. People: 109 Volunteers, 60 of whom are Operational. Includes 1 Chief, 1 Assistant Chief (me), 1 Deputy Chief, 4 Captains 4 Lieutenants. Administrative side includes the President (my wife), Vice President, Secretary, Asst. Secretary, Treasurer, Asst. Treasurer, and 3 Trustees. Full Time employees are 2 Paramedics 24/7, a Captain, Technician (Driver), and 3 Firefighters on Day Work 0700/1500 weekdays. Area Covered: 20 Square miles, 10,000 people, First due. We run an Additional 35 Square miles and 45,000 people on First Alarm. Normal Assignment on Structure Fires is 4 Engines 2 Ladders, 1 Heavy Rescue, 2 EMS units, 2 Chiefs. Total Responses from our station last year: 7,306. Of those, 5122 were EMS, 1836 BLS, and 3286 were ALS. 20+ Extrications and 50+ Working Fires were among the remaining 2184 Responses. Look us up at www.gdvfd18.com

[mglax13]

You can't include riding mowers, thats the most absurd thing I've ever seen in terms of apparatus counts...lol In that case, since I sometimes roll around the truck room in an office chair, I'm going to count that...lol

Anyways, we're fairly big, but not the biggest. 2 Aeriels, 2 Heavy Rescues, 3 Antiques (1 floodlight and 2 engines), 4 engines, 1 pickup, 1 bus, 3 chiefs vehicles, 1 air trailer, 1 b-rig.

Apparatus: 19 pieces
Members: 250

All that...for just 2.2 square miles (sounds like a bit overkill)

And by the way, we have 2 riding mowers.

[hwoods]

Originally posted by mglax13
You can't include riding mowers, thats the most absurd thing I've ever seen in terms of apparatus counts...lol In that case, since I sometimes roll around the truck room in an office chair, I'm going to count that...lol

Anyways, we're fairly big, but not the biggest. 2 Aeriels, 2 Heavy Rescues, 3 Antiques (1 floodlight and 2 engines), 4 engines, 1 pickup, 1 bus, 3 chiefs vehicles, 1 air trailer, 1 b-rig.

Apparatus: 19 pieces
Members: 250

All that...for just 2.2 square miles (sounds like a bit overkill)

And by the way, we have 2 riding mowers.

Do you think we should add the mechanic's creepers??:D :D :D

[WTFD10]

What's a fire company?

Around here we have Engine Companies, Truck Companies, Rescue Companies, etc. but they are part of a fire department.

:D ;)

[SteveDude]

The Biggest single Fire Department in the World is Tokyo...with 17,500 Personnel, 270 Stations and 1800 Apparatus...including 486 Pumps, 20 Motorcycles, 25 rescue Co's, 6 Helicopters and 9 FireBoats.

Next is FDNY with 12,000 staff at 201? Stations (I'll let someone from FDNY correct me here)

And in a miserable third place is London Fire Brigade with 7000 staff at 112 Stations with about 200 Apparatus.

Aside from the top three 'regular' departments, there are places such as New South Wales in Australia that have a number of City/Rural/Volly Departments all under a similar umbrella as I understand it with many thousands of staff/Stations/Apparatus.

[Tooanfrom]

Originally posted by hwoods


Do you think we should add the mechanic's creepers??:D :D :D Only if they have "Lightbar and siren"--seem to have heard this subject before.

How many lights/sirens/woo-woo's/wagsticks allowed on ride on mowers or mechanics crawlers? OTY Explorers and Jr Firefighters.

Do skateboards and pushbikes come into the criteria?:D

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

I am amazed by those low numbers for such a big city Steve.

[SteveDude]

That's years of economising.... and to be fair, because we don't do Engine/Ladder I Guess that allows for a smaller number of Personnel. I was amazed at a call to a fire in an apartment block in brooklyn at 3 in the Moring one year when I was with FDNY.... something like 3 engines, 2 ladders and a Chief.... by us, a similar call to a similar block would be 2 Pumps, if they were riding minimum that may be as few as 4Ff's 2 Drivers and 2 Officers.

The massive use of Fireproof structures, and the subsequent use of High pressure Booster reels...all this adds up to a much smaller attendance in Europe and Australia as well as the UK.
For example, a single bedroom fire with no persons involved in London at 3 in the Morning would be...

OIC; outside
Dep OIC; inside (out of risk area)
Driver one; Pump Operating
Driver two; Command Support (Radio, command board etc)
Ff One SCBA/Firefighting
Ff Two SCBA/Firefighting
Ff Three SCBA Entry Control
Ff Four Support/ BA Comms/Hydrant with Driver....

Now a similar one room fire at 3 in the morning in the US would be????

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

Originally posted by SteveDude


The massive use of Fireproof structures, and the subsequent use of High pressure Booster reels...all this adds up to a much smaller attendance in Europe and Australia as well as the UK.
For example, a single bedroom fire with no persons involved in London at 3 in the Morning would be...

OIC; outside
Dep OIC; inside (out of risk area)
Driver one; Pump Operating
Driver two; Command Support (Radio, command board etc)
Ff One SCBA/Firefighting
Ff Two SCBA/Firefighting
Ff Three SCBA Entry Control
Ff Four Support/ BA Comms/Hydrant with Driver....

Now a similar one room fire at 3 in the morning in the US would be????
Depends on where in the U.S. you are located. There is no standardized national response system. In a city like Chicago, any reported fire gets a minimum of 2 engines, 2 trucks and a chief. If their manning is correct that comes out to 21 personnel. We here in the boonies will get between 10-15 on an "average" house fire. We dont get the large numbers initially that the city does, but then they have problems with exposures and large, wood framed houses. The U.S. is so big and so diverse, you could have 50 different answers to your question above.

[SpartanGuy]

Steve, to answer your question, any reported structure on a first alarm is getting:

Hydranted Area:
Three engines
1 Aerial
1 Rescue
1 ALS Ambulance


Non-hydranted Area:
Add 3 tankers

You're looking at roughly 22-25 personnel, plus the Chief for IC.

To answer the question about our staffing:

Combination Fire Department - 5 full time personnel, soon to be 9 fulltime, 5 part time, 35 volunteer firefighters. 1 Paid Chief, 4 paid firefighters(Including me). 1 Chief, 2 Assistant Chiefs, 2 Captains(me as well), 2 Lieutenants.

2 Engines, 2 Rescues, 2 Tankers, 2 Brush Units(One is a reserve unit), 1 BLS Squad, 1 fire safety house. They're split up evenly between the two stations, with the squad and safety house being at Station 1

We're getting two MASSIVE commercial developments( one 1,400 acre commercial office park and one 600 acre commercial shopping development. The shopping development is supposed to have 140+ outlet stores).

So, we're in the process of a restructuring of the department.
Our ideal set up is going to be like this:

Station 1:
1 Rescue Engine
1 75' Quint
1 Tanker
1 Squad
1 Brush Unit

Station 2:
1 Engine
1 Heavy Rescue
1 100' Tower
1 Utility Vehicle w/ the ATV/Boat trailer

Station 3:
1 Engine w/ a 55' telesqurt
1 Medium Rescue

[hwoods]

We're a bit different, even by U.S. standards. Our County is 430 Square miles, population 850,000. Fire Protection/EMS/Rescue services are provided by 37 Volunteer Fire Departments operating 45 Stations, in cooperation with the County Government. (2 additional stations are fully Career staffed) Full Time Career Firefighters and Paramedics are County employees, but they work in Volunteer stations using Volunteer Apparatus. All the stations operate as if they were one department. Career and Volunteer personnel ride together, and the rank structure is equal. All Stations except 6 are staffed with 4 persons during the day, weekdays. Half of the stations have some Career people around the clock. A standard response for a structure Fire is 4 Engines, 2 Ladder trucks, A Heavy Rescue, and a Couple of Chiefs, Usually an EMS unit or two as well. Staffing can be from as little as 2 on a piece, up to 10. Some apparatus has 10 seats. Norm is 4 to 6. Evenings and weekends, a 35 to 40 person response is a regular thing. Extra Alarm Fires bring people out of the woodwork, a few weeks ago, a Third Alarm assignment had 110 people at the Fire. Totals are 700+ Career Fire and EMS Personnel, 1,750 Volunteers, 92 Engines 24 Ladder trucks, 12 Heavy Rescues 49 BLS Ambulances, 12 ALS Ambulances, 10 Brush units, 4 Tankers, and a whole herd of specialized units. The FD even operates the Bomb Squad (too dangerous for cops to do) We have a fleet of Boats (and 2 "Marine" stations) But for now, no aircraft. Air Medivac is by Md State Police and U.S. Park Police Helicopters. Their Crews are Great people to work with. 2004's numbers are: 323,000 responses to 126,000 incidents. EMS related calls were at 70%.

[TillerMan25]

Seems like the City of Pasadena Texas claims to be the "Largest Municipal Volunteer Fire Department in the United States."

Looks like they have about 10 Stations. Google them.....