The Phoenix Fire Department provides

fire protection Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of potentially destructive fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, compartmentalisation, suppression and investigation of fire and its related emergencies, as we ...

and

emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...

for the city of

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. The department responded to 186,594 calls during 2014–2015, with 88% being for emergency medical services. The Phoenix Fire Department currently protects 1.5 million residents spread across an area of .

History

The Phoenix Fire Department was established as a

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond t ...

on August 17, 1886, with the formation of Engine 1. In 1922 the department transitioned from volunteers to career members. From 1924 to present day, the department created the A, B, and C shifts, which started and ended every third day at 8:00 AM. On Dec. 9, 1929, the Phoenix Fire Department suffered its first fatality in the line of duty. While responding to a call, Squad 1 and Engine 2 crashed into each other at 14th and Van Buren streets. Captain Jack Sullivan of Squad 1 was killed immediately. In 1936 the Phoenix Fire Department joined the

International Association of Firefighters The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is a labor union representing paid full-time firefighters and emergency medical services personnel in the United States and Canada. The IAFF was formed in 1918 and is affiliated with the AFL ...

and formed the union Local 493. The surrounding fire departments, Tempe, Glendale, Chandler, Surprise, and Peoria, are also part of Local 493. On Jun. 5, 2021 the Phoenix Fire Department responded to a fire at around 35th Ave and Lincoln St. The strength of the fire grew quickly from
2 alarm fire
which it then skipped to
4 alarm fire
which then grew to
5 alarm fire
after that it grew finally to
6 alarm
fire with more than 150 firefighters on scene. To this day this was the largest response of the Phoenix Fire Department with more than 10 different agencies from across Arizona and even 200+ firefighters
Source

Stations & apparatus

The fire department battalions are listed here. Some fire stations have two engine companies. In February 2020, the fire department opened the 9th Battalion in the Central District. Each Battalion is commanded by a Battalion Chief and each District is commanded by a District Chief.

Battalion 1 (Central District)

Battalion 2 (East District)

Battalion 3 (West District)

Battalion 4 (North District)

Battalion 5 (South District)

Battalion 6 (East District)

Battalion 7 (South District)

Battalion 8 (North District)

Battalion 9 (Central District)

Battalion 19 (Aviation District)

Resource Management

Closure of South Deputy and North Deputy

In February 2020, the Phoenix Fire Department closed the South Deputy Chief and the North Deputy Chief which staffed senior command officers that were shift commanders. The functions of both North and South Deputy Chiefs were absorbed with Battalion 1 and Battalion 4. The Phoenix Fire Department then opened Central Deputy Chief to replace Battalion 8's role. Now, shift commanders are Central Deputy, Battalion Chief 1, Battalion Chief 4, District Chief 1, District Chief 2, District Chief 3, District Chief 4, District Chief 5 and District Chief 19.

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Team Arizona Task Force

The Phoenix-based FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team Arizona Task Force 1 (or AZ-TF1) is a

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force Members of FEMA US&R Task Force at World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. A FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force (US&R Task Force) is a team of individuals specializing in urban search and rescue, disaster recovery, and emergency triage a ...

sponsored by the Phoenix Fire Department. AZ-TF1 is one of 28 such FEMA US&R Rescue Teams with numerous disaster response capabilities such as search and rescue, hazardous material detection and decontamination, structural collapse rescue, technical search, emergency triage and medicine, live find and human remains detection canines, and disaster recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency created the geographically positioned teams in an effort to provide support for large-scale disasters in both the United States and the potential international response abroad. In recent years the FEMA US&R system has developed the ability for a modular response in the event a specific capability is needed during a disaster response. An example of this would be a swift-water rescue team needed to augment the current search and rescue assets already deployed. FEMA provides the financial, technical and training support for all 28 teams as well as manage an internal auditing system to verify and validate each team's ability to provide a standardized response of both personnel and equipment.

Deployments

Noteworthy AZ-TF1 deployments include: * 1994

Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

1995 Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995. Perpetrated by two anti-government extremists, Timothy McVeigh and Terry N ...

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

* 2003

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster was a fatal accident in the United States space program that occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere over Texa ...

* 2005 Hurricane Katrina * 2008 Hurricane Ike/Gustav *

2014 Oso mudslide A major landslide occurred east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014, at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, ...

* 2017 Hurricane Harvey/Irma/Maria * 2018 Hurricane Florence

References

External links

Phoenix Fire Department

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Phoenix Fire Department Regional Dispatch Center incident listing

Phoenix Fire Foundation

Arizona Search Dogs
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Fire Department A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

Fire departments in Arizona Ambulance services in the United States Medical and health organizations based in Arizona Arizona 1 Organizations based in Phoenix, Arizona