Fire Department Services

Fire Suppression

Fire Suppression refers to all activities within a fire department that involve actively preparing for, responding to and engaging in tasks necessary to control and extinguish a fire.  Fires may be classified as structural, wildland (brush and timber), vehicular, rubbish, equipment and miscellaneous.  Fire suppression activities also include responses to investigate citizen concerns related to the presence of odor and / or smoke.  Different types of fires require specific equipment and personnel responses from the Stevensville Fire Department.                                    

Each company is typically staffed with three personnel at a minimum (one company officer, one engineer and one fire fighter).  Personnel perform a variety of specialized tasks to effectively suppress a fire and account for life safety issues, they include:

Forcible entry to secure occupancies
Fire attack with hose lines
Ventilation of smoke, gases and heat
Search and rescue
Rapid intervention and rescue of trapped fire fighters
Salvage and overhaul to protect property and possessions
Crew rehabilitation and medical monitoring
Scene safety and hazard abatement  

Fire suppression activities are managed under the “Incident Command System”, an organized management process to ensure all personnel, equipment and assignments are conducted within a manageable span of control, an incident action plan developed and advertised, coordinated communications, a personnel accountability system in place, and coordinated efforts and communication between multiple agencies.

Emergency Medical Services

In 2023 the Stevensville Fire Department responded to 675 calls for service and 535 of those calls were medically related.  All Firefighters are trained to perform life sustaining procedures including cardiopulmonary resuscitation CPR), control bleeding, treat shock, stabilize injuries and wounds, and other first aid skills. In addition the Stevensville Fire Department has EMT's who are trained at a higher level.

The Stevensville Fire Department also responds to Motor Vehicle Crashes to provide EMS, Extrication, and traffic control.

Technical Rescue

Within the boundaries that the Stevensville Fire Department serves, occasionally we have incidents that exceed the tools and skills that are normally reserved for fire fighting, medical emergencies and rescues. When this occurs we provide our firefighters with an additional level of training to save lives and property. The firefighters are trained in confined space rescue, low angle rescue, and swift water rescue.

Some examples where a crew would be deployed: a climber stuck on a rock out cropping, someone installing a sewer where the dirt trench has collapsed causing an entrapment, a person swept away by the river. While these types of incidents occur infrequently, it is important that our firefighters can complete these complex rescues in a safe, efficient manner.