The mission of the Wichita Fire Department is to minimize the loss of life and property resulting from fires, medical emergencies and other disasters.

The Wichita Fire Department was founded in 1886 when Wichita outgrew its volunteer department. The Wichita Fire Department, like many others, has evolved from the original purpose of fighting fires to its current task of providing a much broader level of emergency services to the public. The Department has demonstrated exceptional community value by providing emergency medical response, fire suppression, fire prevention, public education, public health services as well as internal and external customer service.

The Wichita Fire Department serves a population base estimated to be 354,500. In addition, the department utilizes mutual aid agreements with surrounding suburban municipalities.

The Department is a diverse department comprised of 415 members with 7 of those individuals being civilians. The Fire Chief and two civilian personnel handle the administrative oversight of the department such as payroll, monitoring budgets, financial payment processes, and special projects. There are 14 employees assigned to Fire Prevention and these individuals are responsible for Investigation, Inspection and Public Education. The remaining 398 personnel are assigned to Operations. The command staff consists of one Fire Chief, one Deputy Fire Chief of Operations, one Deputy Fire chief of Fire Prevention, 10 Operation Battalion Chiefs, one Battalion Chief of Training, one Battalion Chief of Administration and one Battalion Chief of Fire Prevention.

The Wichita Fire Department is divided into three divisions, Administration, Operations and Fire Prevention. The Administrative division, the Deputy Chief of Operations, Administrative Battalion Chief and Fire Prevention division are located on the 11th Floor of City Hall. All other staff operate out of three Battalions, with three shifts responding from 19 fire stations, strategically located throughout the City of Wichita.

In 2006, the Wichita Fire Department responded to the following calls:

Structural Fires	589
Vehicle Fires	338
Vegetation Fires	678
EMS Response Calls	28,074
Rescue	66
Hazardous Condition/Materials	1,227
Service Calls	2,495
Good Intent Calls/False Alarms	6,645

Recent Accomplishments

• From 2003 to 2005, Stations 4, 7, 10, 12, 13 and 19 were replaced and relocated to better service the citizens of Wichita.

• In the last five years, there has been 92% replacement of heavy apparatuses, such as Engines, Quints, and Aerial Platforms.

• For the past six years the Fire Department has applied for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant and has been awarded five of those six grants for a total of $2,036,724. The funds were used to replace Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA’s), station diesel emissions/extraction systems in the older fire stations, replace breathing air compressors for the SCBA’s, portable radios, acquire additional rescue equipment and Weapons of Mass Destruction training.

Key Projects/Issues/Challenges

• Over the next three years, the Wichita Fire department will be adding three new fire stations and making improvements to the training facility.

• Maintain or improve the Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating for Wichita. Currently, Wichita has a Class 3 fire suppression rating (with 1 being the highest on a 10-point scale) from the Insurance Services Office.

We are proud to serve and our greatest concern and commitment is for the safety and well being of the citizens and visitors of Wichita, Kansas

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