The City of Stamford Connecticut is 39.9 square miles in size, located approximately 35 miles East of New York City on the shores of Long Island Sound extending North to the New York State border. Stamford has a population of over 120,000 residents which increases by over 50,000 people daily as they commute into Stamford to work. Stamford is the headquarters for many Fortune 500 companies such as Xerox, GTE and Champion International. The building boom of high rise office buildings, shopping centers, apartments, condos and single family homes started in the early 1980’s and has continued as Swiss Bank and other companies relocate with their employees to the city from New York City and other areas. Its citizens range from low income to some of the highest in the country with housing reflecting their income. Prior to 1950, the City of Stamford was actually two separate entities, The City of Stamford, and The Town of Stamford. The City area has provided full career fire protection since the late 1800’s, while in the Town district, fire protection was provided by volunteer fire departments organized by civic minded citizens aware of the need to protect lives and property in their neighborhoods.
Fire protection in the City of Stamford has remained a dual level of service system based upon these old city/town boundaries. The areas formerly in the town of Stamford are protected by Volunteer (combination) Fire Departments. To provide on duty staffing at their fire stations as service demands increased and the numbers of volunteers decreased, each of the volunteer departments hired their own career personnel, and signed separate labor agreements with these employees. Each of these stations is now staffed around the clock by at least one on duty paid career firefighter, and often more than one career person. All of the expenses of these departments are funded by the taxpayers. The career personnel are responsible for maintaining the stations and equipment and responding to emergency incidents. The volunteers respond from their home or business to the incident, and provide some in station staffing when they are available.
In an effort to assure the continued safety of all city residents, The City Administration, conducted a fire service analysis using an outside consultant. As recommended in their report, in an effort to assure the continued safety of all city residents, and to contain costs, the Stamford Fire Department developed plans, using existing personnel, to provide a fully career staffed engine company in one of the volunteer districts. This company now works together with the existing volunteers and career personnel of the districts to improve immediate personnel response to all emergency incidents.
The Stamford Fire Department is a full career department with 238 employees, including staff and support personnel, currently operating from 6 fire stations with 7 engines, 3 trucks, 1 rescue company. The Department has a Mission Statement with clearly stated goals and objectives. Personnel from every rank in the department are involved in special projects to help the department reach its goals and objectives and to help us serve the public better.
Beyond the routine firefighter and officer certifications, the departments personnel are certified in Haz Mat Operations and Technician levels, Emergency Medical Technician, SCUBA, Confined Space and Trench Rescue, High-Angle Rescue and many other skills to help us provide first class service to the public including medical first responder with automatic heart defibrillation capabilities.
The departments management staff consists of the Fire Chief, 2 Assistant Fire Chiefs, and a support staff which includes an Administrative Assistant and an Account Clerk.
The Fire Marshal division is staffed by the Fire Marshal, 2 Assistant Fire Marshals and 9 Deputy Fire Marshals and a Secretary. They are responsible for all plan reviews, code enforcement and fire investigation within the district which includes over 7,000 individual parcels requiring annual inspection as well as a major building boom in the district. This division also coordinates the departments Fire Safety Education Program.
The Training division is directed by a Deputy Chief, and staffed with 2 Captains, all whom coordinate all aspects of training and certification for the department utilizing department personnel with specific knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as State and outside instructors as may be needed. Newly hired Recruit Firefighters must successfully complete a 12 week training program and be certified as firefighter 1, Haz Mat operations level and EMT prior to being assigned to the suppression division. The department recently totally rebuilt its fire training facility with a new 5 story training tower, attached 2 story burn building and other training props. This new facility includes modem gas fueled fire simulation equipment to improve fire training safety and prevent pollution of the environment. The training facility is used by all the Stamford Fire Departments as well as being available for use by other agencies on a fee for service basis. This project was brought in on time and within budget.
The Departments Mechanical Division is responsible for the maintenance of all vehicles and equipment as well as over 2000 fire hydrants throughout the city.
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