Fire Stations

A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall or firemen’s hall) is a building for the storage of firefighting apparatus, including vehicles, personal protective equipment and fire hoses. Some contain living and working space for firefighters and support staff. Fire stations may also include a fire lookout tower, bell or clock tower and drill towers for training purposes. This list does not include specialty buildings such as fire alarm headquarters or pumping stations for water supply systems dedicated to firefighting; these are covered by the List of fire department specialty facilities.

Many fire stations are occupied full-time by career firefighters who have their own living area. When an emergency call comes in they will wait at the fire station until being called out to an incident. The firefighters usually have beds for sleeping while on duty at night. The fire station will have living areas, work areas, a kitchen and an engine room. Firefighters are alerted to calls by sirens, radio and pagers. The fire station may have a library of reference materials and a trophy wall to display memorabilia.

Some smaller communities have their own fire stations. They are staffed by part-time or volunteer firefighters who drive to the fire station and wait to be called out to an emergency. The fire station will have a truck and other equipment, and may also have living areas, offices, a kitchen and a library of reference materials.

Many cities and large townships have multiple fire stations within close proximity to each other to serve their populations efficiently. The City of New York, for example, has 218 firehouses, along with a variety of other emergency response and prevention facilities. The Fire Department of the City of New York, or FDNY, is one of the largest fire departments in the world. It responds to millions of emergency calls annually, and provides other critical public safety services in the City’s five boroughs and at locations around the world on special assignments.