Welcome to the Defiance Fire & Rescue Division

On August 19, 1872, Defiance’s elected officials approved an ordinance to organize the community’s first fire company, Liberty Company No. 1, under the direction of Chief Engineer John F. Deatrick, Sr.

As only the 12th Fire Chief to follow in Chief Deatrick’s footsteps, I feel honored to be entrusted with ensuring that the Fire and Rescue Division continues to provide excellent public service – as our firefighters and the firefighters before them have provided for nearly 137 years.

Much as changed since 1872, yet much has remained the same.

During its first year of service from April 1873 to April 1874, Liberty Company No. 1 responded to eight fires and fire alarms. In 2008, the Defiance Fire and Rescue Division responded to 2,095 alarms. These alarms included 1,744 medical emergency and rescue runs, 73 fire incidents, 92 other hazardous situations including severe weather, 55 service calls and 131 false alarms and good intent calls.

In 1874, Defiance’s most expensive piece of fire apparatus was a Clapp & Jones steam engine valued at $4,200. In 2009, the Fire and Rescue Division will take delivery of a new fire engine at a cost of $366,939.

Despite technological advances, increased demands for fire-rescue services and increased costs to provide these services, what has not changed since 1873 is this: When the alarm sounds at the firehouse, firefighters must be ready to answer the call – every hour of the day and every day of the year.

Defiance firefighters now answer these calls in an average response time of four minutes and 30 seconds within the city limits, from the moment the alarm sounds to the arrival of the first rescue squad or fire company on the scene. This response time meets the performance standard of five minutes or less set forth by the National Fire Protection Association for full-time fire departments.

The City is protected by 23 full-time Fire and Rescue personnel; with 21 personnel divided among three 24-hour shifts and two chief officers. Shift personnel include both EMTs and paramedics, trained and equipped to provide the most advanced pre-hospital care available in the nation. The Division also has a part-time administrative assistant.

Our full-time firefighters are augmented by 17 auxiliary paid-on-call firefighters, including a chaplain, whose lineage can be traced uninterrupted all the way back to the volunteer firefighters of Liberty Company No.1.

Although no longer active as firefighters, two groups of volunteers – the Star Hose Company and the Defiance Volunteer Fire Department – still carry on a mission of preserving the City’s fire service history. Both groups meet in the East Side Firehouse, which was built in 1890.

What also has not changed since the first fire alarm rang out in Defiance is the support the Fire and Rescue Division needs, receives – and appreciates – from the citizens we serve. Our taxpayers are the people who make it possible for our firefighters to perform their jobs as effectively and safely as possible, from the state-of-the-art protective clothing we wear to the modern fire and rescue equipment we utilize.

We welcome you to stop by to see us at the Central Fire Station at 702 West Third Street. We will be glad to show you around and answer any questions you may have about your Fire and Rescue Division.