Prescott Fire Department
The Prescott Fire Department is the oldest fire department in
the state of Arizona. It was established in 1885 and is today
a modern and highly professional career fire department. The department
has a wonderful history full of firefighting traditions and past
times.
The department consists of 78 career personnel, five fire stations,
and serves a population of 37,000 over 38.4 square miles. We are
dedicated to providing the highest level of service in the prevention
and mitigation of emergency incidents in a growing community and
treating our citizens and employees in a fair and considerate
manner while remaining financially responsible.
The Prescott Fire Department values a creative and proactive work
place, and is involved in numerous joint partnerships to include
automatic aid with the Central
Yavapai Fire District, United
States Forest Service, and Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe.
We are dedicated to excellence in service for our customers. The
department managed the first vegetation reduction crew with 400
area homes being successfully treated for wildland defensible
space. We successfully secured a follow-up national fire program
grant to continue vegetation reduction, and are a firewise model
community within the nation in regards to mitigating the urban
interface issue that exists within our region.
Our communications center dispatched 12,200 calls for service
for five fire agencies in the year of 2002. These calls were processed
in less that 50 seconds, 99% of the time. The department prevention
bureau reviewed 350 plans for new subdivisions and buildings,
completed final inspection of Prescott's largest building project,
the Gateway Mall. They trained 1550 students in fire/life safety,
completed 400 wildland risk assessments and completed the process
of adopting the 2000 International Fire Code and Wildland Urban
Interface Code.
Suppression crews responded to 5,700 calls for service, responding
within 50 seconds, 90% of the time. Department apparatus are always
staffed with advanced cardiac life support personnel. Personnel
and equipment were dispatched to New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon,
Wyoming, California and Nevada as part of our off district wildland
team. Suppression members conducted 21,000 man-hours of in-service
training in all aspects of emergency services to include advanced
and basic life support, fire suppression, wildland fire suppression,
aircraft rescue firefighting, hazardous materials, rescue diving,
trench rescue, high and low angle rope rescue, helicopter operations,
child safety, public education, mass casualty, natural disasters,
and terrorism.
On May 15th, 2002, the most significant fire in Prescott for over
100 years took place. The "Indian" Fire started near
Indian Creek Road in the Prescott National Forest and burned into
the city limits. Five homes were destroyed along with 1365 acres
of vegetation. 1500 people were evacuated and 2000 homes were
directly threatened. Due to the USFS fuel reduction, quick coordinated
initial attack by the USFS, Prescott Fire Department, Central
Yavapai Fire District, and the cooperation of the Prescott Police
Department, Yavapai County Sheriff's office and Yavapai Division
of Emergency Management and numerous volunteers the fire was contained
in five days. The cost of fighting the fire stands at approximately
$3,000,000.
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