Baytown Fire Department

The Baytown Fire Department is a municipal career fire department serving the city of Baytown, Texas and the surrounding unincorporated areas. The department was formed from the consolidation of several volunteer departments in the area when the City of Baytown was formed in 1946. The name of the department was changed to the Baytown Fire and Rescue Services in the 1990s but in 2006 returned to the traditional title Baytown Fire Department.

The department is made up of nearly 100 classified personnel and a civilian staff manning the fire department administration and city Office of Emergency Management.

Currently there are five stations, each housing a single fire company. In 2007 a bond was passed for the construction of two additional stations as early as 2009. The first of these, Station 6, is slated to be built in the Pinehurst area off State Highway 146 in the northeast quadrant of the city. The second, Station 7, is planned for the area of Garth Rd. and Interstate 10. An earlier bond provided funds for a replacement for Station 5 on Bayway Dr. that broke ground in May 2008. The oldest fire station in use in Baytown is located at 300 S. Main and houses a single ambulance. It was formerly the Goose Creek municipal building and volunteer fire department and served as a fire station from the 1930s until the 1980s. The oldest fire station in use as a fire station is Station 2 at 2400 Market, built in 1954. The newest station is Station 3, opened in 1996 as a replacement station.

The department provides fire response, technical and heavy rescue services, EMS first response, and hazardous materials mitigation. The department operates a federally-designated hazmat and WMD team that is available to agencies in a several-county region of East Texas.

Operations

The department operates with three shifts working a 24-hour-on/48-hour-off schedule. Minimum manning on all fire apparatus is four crew members, including a company officer (lieutenant) and each shift is supervised by a battalion chief.

The department has lost three members in the line of duty: Charles Emory Williamson in 1955, Captain Henry K. Rowe in 1975, and Nito Guajardo in 2004.

External links

* [http://www.ladder1.com Station 1's website]
* [http://www.baytown.org/public/fire/default.htm Official city page]
* [http://www.local1173.org/ Union local]