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:
“Men hold themselves cheap and vile; and yet a man is a fagot of thunderbolts. All the elements pour through his system: he is the flood of the flood, and fire of the fire; he feels the antipodes and the pole, as drops of his blood: they are the extension of his personality.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
““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)