Vancouver Fire Department (Washington)
The Vancouver Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Vancouver and, by contract to Clark County Fire District 5, in Washington, United States. The VFD's response area is with a population of over 301,529. The VFD has the highest call volume per firefighter in the state. ALS transport is provided by AMR, making the VFD's service area population by far the largest in Western Washington without public ALS ambulance service.
History
The Vancouver Fire Department was officially founded on January 1, 1867, by means of an ordinance passed by the City Council. The motivation for the formation of the department came in August 1866 when a fire started in a furniture store and, in less than an hour, destroyed eight buildings.Operations
Fire and EMS Response
An engine company is the standard multi-purpose response resource for each of the 11 VFD stations. Engines carry water, hose, a full complement of emergency medical equipment, as well as a variety of other tools and equipment.In addition, the VFD operates 3 truck companies that are housed alongside engine companies. VFD truck companies carry a full complement of ground ladders and a 100 ft. aerial ladder, along with other structure-fire-specific tools. They are also the primary technical rescue companies, carrying patient extrication equipment, forcible entry equipment, and other special equipment. Current VFD trucks are tractor-drawn aerials and do not carry water. They are the only fully staffed truck companies in all of Clark County.
January 2026 NOTE- A new KME mid-mount platform apparatus is on order, and is expected to replace the current Truck 10 in 2026. That company will eventually move to the remodeled Station 8.
VFD engine companies are always staffed with 3 members minimum, and truck companies are always staffed with 4 members minimum. Each engine company and truck company is operated by an Apparatus Engineer and supervised by a Captain
Three 2-person squads are now in service at Stations 1, 5, and 6. These are light, fast, multi-purpose companies staffed in addition to the other companies housed with them: They are Type 6 wildland engines that also carry ALS medical gear. One of the results of Proposition 2's funding increase, they are intended to improve response times and reduce wear-and-tear on the larger and heavier engines with which they share quarters.
All VFD engine companies, squads and truck companies are staffed at the Advanced Life Support level at all times. Every VFD firefighter, Apparatus Engineer, Captain and Battalion Chief is certified to either the EMT-Basic or EMT-Paramedic level. The department's daily minimum on-duty staffing is 53, including 2 BCs. More than 62% of the department's annual call volume is EMS-related. Because of the geographic distribution of VFD fire stations, the fire companies provide primary ALS assessment and treatment until the AMR transport ambulance arrives.
All staffed VFD companies are dispatched via AVL, a GPS-based feature of the regional computer-aided dispatch system. The closest company of a CAD-recommended type is automatically sent to an incident, regardless of jurisdiction.
Vancouver's heavy rescue, hazardous materials, fire boat, rehab and air apparatus, as well as all water tenders and brush engines, are not normally staffed. They can be cross-staffed by their co-housed engine or truck crew when needed.
The combined City of Vancouver/Fire District 5 response area is split into two geographic battalions. Each battalion is managed by a BC working the same 4-platoon schedule as Firefighters and Captains. At present, each BC supervises 5 or 6 stations and their respective companies.
A BC serves as the incident commander for all complex, multi-company operations. Both BCs respond to every structure fire incident to fill IC and other roles. A BC also normally responds with Vancouver companies that are dispatched to complex incidents outside of the VFD response area. They provide additional command staff assistance at those incidents.
For very large incidents, the VFD can request the Vancouver Police Department mobile command post vehicle. VPD's acquisition of this asset allowed the VFD to discontinue maintenance and operation of its own command post vehicle.
In addition to their regular duties, at least one Training Captain responds to structure fires and other complex scenes to serve as the Incident Safety Officer.
Definitions/Terminology/Active Incidents:
"Apparatus" refers to an unstaffed vehicle, such as an engine, truck, or squad apparatus.
"Company" normally refers to an apparatus combined with the team of firefighters assigned to it. Therefore, "Engine 2" represents the engine and its assigned Captain and firefighters based at Fire Station 2. Even if the apparatus is a different machine- a temporary reserve or "spare" engine, the company will still be dispatched and will respond as "Engine 2." Reserve apparatus accommodate changeable placards, kept at each station, that properly display company designators for this reason.
Alarm levels: Each incident type has a specific number of resources assigned to it in the 911 dispatch system. Most EMS incidents require just the closest engine, squad, or truck company. But an incident at which CPR is in progress would get the two closest companies. A room-and-contents house fire is normally assigned three engines, one truck, one squad, and two BCs. If the size and complexity of the incident is determined to exceed what was originally reported, the IC may request that CRESA 911 upgrade the incident to a 2-alarm fire. The resulting "second alarm" dispatch will send essentially another set of companies mirroring the first alarm, in this case, 3 more engines and another truck. A large commercial building gets more companies initially, and a second alarm at the same address would get a commensurately larger set of additional companies.
Active Incidents on PULSE POINT: ''The Pulse Point CPR app's CAD viewer feature can be used to see both active and recent fire and EMS incidents in Vancouver and all of Clark County. It monitors CRESA's CAD system, but is not an emergency alert tool for anything other than CPR incidents in public places. Vancouver companies are numbered from 1-19. The designators are as follows for all of Clark County: E- engine, T- truck, SQ-squad, BC- battalion chief, HR- heavy rescue, M- paramedic ambulance, B- brush, WT- water tender, TRN- training captain, TRT- tech rescue, HM- Haz Mat, FM- fire marshal, C- chief. 19Ax- County fire investigator
The radio feature available in Pulse Point is flawed as currently set up- it feely mixes CRESA's Fire Tap, Fire Comm, Ops channels, and the totally separate WSP dispatch and AMR dispatch. ''
Specialty Teams
Technical Rescue: The Heavy Rescue 5 apparatus and a Clark Co. FD 6 multi-purpose vehicle make up the Clark County Technical Rescue Team fleet. The team is composed of members from both departments, as well as from other agencies within Clark County. HR5 can be cross-staffed by members of Engine 5 and/or Truck 5 for initial deployment. This team is a regional asset.Hazardous Materials: Engine 10 serves as the on-duty HazMat company for emergency consultation. The special-purpose HazMat 10 and Foam 10 are not staffed, but are usually part of a team deployment. The team must be assembled for a full mobilization, with most members coming from home. This can take 1 hour or more. This team is a regional asset.
Fireboat
In May 2014, the VFD launched the Discovery, a quick response fireboat. This vessel was specially designed for all-season fire and rescue duty on the Columbia River. It can operate in very shallow water, and can beach itself like a landing craft when necessary. The fireboat was paid for through a port security grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Normally FEMA matches funds raised locally on a three to one basis, but, in Vancouver's case, FEMA waived the requirement for a local contribution to the capital costs, and paid the entire $1.6 million costs itself.Labor Groups
Firefighters, captains, battalion chiefs and division chiefs are represented by "Vancouver Firefighters Local 452" of the International Association of Firefighters.Fire prevention personnel are currently represented by the “Vancouver Fire Department Guild.”