Emergency Operations

The Tucson Fire Department staffs 22 fire stations and a Regional Public Safety Training Academy. Our engine, ladder/ladder tender and paramedic companies are equipped with the latest capabilities and technologies, and our personnel are kept up-to-date with training in the latest firefighting, rescue, and emergency medical procedures and methods.

Each engine, ladder/ladder tender company, for example, is now equipped with a thermal imaging camera, which allows firefighters to see through smoke and darkness and rescue victims more quickly: thus saving lives. Our ladder/ladder tender companies are equipped with specialty rescue equipment ranging from swift water rescue tools (for plucking people from flash-flooded washes), to new extrication tools such as power rams, power spreaders and power cutters (for getting people out of burning or collapsed buildings, or cars mangled in wrecks).

Operations is divided into 4 Major Emergency Services.

Fire Suppression

Emergency Medical Services and ALS Transport

Medic truck

The Tucson Fire Department provides Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for the City of Tucson.

These services range from Basic First Aid to Advanced Cardiac and Trauma Life Support. TFD responds to thousands of medical emergencies annually, ranging from motor vehicle accidents and drownings to childbirths and heart attacks.

Tucson Fire provides medical care through EMT's, Paramedics and Toxicology Paramedics. Currently we are working with Sarver Heart Center, at the University of Arizona to initiate a ground-breaking new method of CPR, performing uninterrupted chest compressions during arrests. We anticipate dramatically improving survival rates in cardiac arrest victims.

On all medical emergencies, TFD personnel are able to contact a Physician at a local emergency room for directions on patient care.

EMT's

Tucson Fire Department is on the leading edge of emergency medical care. All uniformed members of TFD are certified as basic EMTs, and all our fire-suppression engines carry the equipment necessary to make them capable of performing advanced care from automatic external defibrillating and blood-glucose testing, to monitoring a patient’s blood oxygen saturation. In addition, seven of our engine and ladder/ladder tender companies are staffed and equipped as paramedic assessment units.

EMT's provide Basic Life Support (BLS). It is the EMT's responsibility to interpret signs and symptoms of injury and disease, and determine the appropriate course of treatment. EMT's are trained to provide Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation, administer oxygen, control bleeding, perform spinal immobilization, splint fractures, and rescue patients from entrapment or inaccessible surroundings.

All Tucson Fire personnel that respond to medical emergencies are certified to a minimum of EMT.

Hazardous Material Control

The Hazardous Materials Control Team is charged with the responsibility of responding to hazardous materials incidents to mitigate any potential threat to humans or the environment.

The Hazardous Materials Control Team which is housed at Station 1 is comprised of Hazardous Materials Technicians that fill all assigned positions. Normal staffing is as follows: BN01(1), EN01(4), EN02(4), LD01(4), HZ01(1), PM01(2), EC21(1). Staffing is maintained at a minimum of 9 Hazardous Materials Technicians at all times.

Technical Rescue

The Operations Front Line Apparatus

  • 22 Class A Pumpers
  • 8 Ladder Truck companies (3 classified as Quints - carrying water and pumping ability)
  • 4 Ladder Tenders
  • 17 Paramedic Transport Units
  • 1 2500 gl Water Tender
  • 2 HazMat Trucks
  • 1 Technical Rescue Truck
  • 2 Brush Trucks
  • 1 Rehabilitation Vehicle
  • 2 RRT Trucks - Rapid Response Team (Disaster Response)
  • 1 APL - Air, Power and Light Truck
  • 1 Box Truck (Mass Casualty Response)
  • 5 Rescue Vehicles (2 Person, Non-Transport assessment units)
    *All apparatus are equipped with Advanced Life Support (ALS) equipment.