Fire Department
The Worcester Fire Department (WFD) employs 406 full-time firefighters to protect the city. The WFD operates out of ten fire stations in two divisions, located throughout the city. The WFD operates a fire apparatus fleet of thirteen engines, seven ladders, one rescue, one special operations unit, one state haz-mat unit, one state field communications unit, one scuba dive rescue unit, one air unit and one fireboat, under the direction of two district chiefs and one deputy chief.
The Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire occurred the night of December 3, 1999, at 6:13 pm. Six Worcester firefighters perished while looking for two homeless victims thought to be trapped in the blaze. The fire went to five alarms and took six days to bring under control. The six firefighters that lost their lives are known as the Worcester 6.
The WFD responded to a total of 28,891 incidents (1,384 fire and 27,507 non-fire) during 2011. In 2007, the fire department received a Class 2 rating from ISO.
Read more about this topic: Worcester, Massachusetts
Famous quotes containing the words fire and/or department:
“I sometimes left a good fire when I went to take a walk in a winter afternoon; and when I returned, three or four hours afterward, it would be still alive and glowing. My house was not empty though I was gone. It was as if I had left a cheerful housekeeper behind. It was I and Fire that lived there; and commonly my housekeeper proved trustworthy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
““Which is more important to you, your field or your children?” the department head asked. She replied, “That’s like asking me if I could walk better if you amputated my right leg or my left leg.””
—Anonymous Parent. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)