Fire Department
Mission Statement
To provide cost-effective emergency services to the citizens of Calhoun and Gordon County, Georgia. The organization is designed to provide these services through intensive training, pre-planning, responding to and extinguishing unwanted fires, mitigating hazardous materials releases, and providing stabilization, extrication and package for transport service to victims of accident, as well as response to other manmade and natural disasters and emergency situations.
The Fire Department currently has 38 full time employees consisting of 36 shift personnel. Each shift (3) consists of a battalion Chief, Lieutenant, and 10 Firefighters. The Office staff consists of a Deputy Fire marshal, a Deputy Fire Chief and Fire Chief. There are three stations covering the City of Calhoun, which is approximately 12 square miles. The department protects a residential population of over 13,000 and a service delivery population of approximately 40,000. The coverage area includes industrial parks, the downtown commercial district, schools, a technical college, hospital, airport, major state routes, and the interstate along with other outlying commercial areas.
Some of the services provided other than firefighting are inspections (2 full time inspectors included in Community Development), safety and fire code enforcement. Public fire safety education classes (seeing over 1800 children in October alone), fire investigations, plan review for new construction, burn permits, sprinkler, installation permits, fuel tank permits and requested home safety inspections. The department personnel works in the schools and daycares teaching fire safety to children from pre-k to the fifth grade. Firefighters give tours of the stations, conduct fire extinguisher training, hold safety fairs, sponsor a smoke detector program and do blood pressure checks at the stations.
The department is a founding member of Safe Kids of Georgia in Calhoun, coordinating member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). The Fire Department is developing a special operations team along with Gordon County Fire Department and is also working with surrounding communities in other response areas. This team currently consists of Hazardous Materials Response (Haz-Mat) and the Dive Rescue/Recovery unit. The department provides mutual aid response with other public safety agencies in the area.
The Fire Chief and staff will continue to work on improving the effectiveness of the department through training, planning, and staff coordination. The Fire Department will continue to work with the Police Department to coordinate efforts to better utilize personnel. The department has had discussions with elected officials to coordinate the city's updated comprehensive plan. The Fire department will encourage the city and county officials to build a muti-agency training facility to be used by the public safety agencies in the area. The department is in the planning stages of the location of the fourth fire station. The Inspections Division will continue to be aggressive in the areas of public safety education and inspections / code enforcement to prevent fires and accidents. The department will strive to continually improve through training to provide better service to the public, as well as increasing safety for response personnel. We will plan for the best utilization of manpower and resources for current and future needs. Management will continue to strive to provide the highest quality service possible for the citizens.