Fire / EMS Station
Fire / EMS Station: A building that contains fire‐fighting equipment and personnel or a provider of combined fire‐fighting and rescue services.
Fire Station / EMS Station
The Guidelines define Fire Stations and EMS Stations as follows:
A building that contains fire‐fighting equipment and personnel or a provider of combined fire‐fighting and rescue services.
- INDICATORS: Houses a fire engine.
INCLUDES: Buildings that contain fire response equipment and serve as a location to which fire personnel report before being dispatched into the community. May also provide combined emergency medical services operations and/or rescue services.
DOES NOT INCLUDE: Ambulance stations not part of fire-fighting services, facilities for equipment storage only (i.e., no dispatch), fire hall meeting facilities, training facilities without fire-fighting services.
What is a Fire Station / EMS Station?
The basic requirement for a Fire Station/EMS Station is that the structure contains a fire engine. It may or may not also house an ambulance. Fire personnel visit the station on a regular basis to keep the equipment clean and shiny and ready to go, and before being dispatched into the community for an emergency. It may only have volunteer responders and not full-time personnel on site.
Where can I find authoritative lists of Fire Stations?
Fire department web pages are the best source of data but may not specify the locations of stations. Fire Departments in smaller and/or rural communities may have their own Facebook page in place of a website.
Page six of our July 2017 Newsletter below has an infographic on Facebook as an authoritative source.
County and city websites also often have information about fire departments through their emergency management offices. The US Fire Administration has the most complete nationwide list of fire departments; however, this data may be dated and not complete. Their list is the result of a voluntary National Fire Department Census wherein during the years 2001 to 2004 fire departments filled out and handed in survey forms. The USFA is "continuously working to encourage more fire departments to participate in the census," however, since the original census now is almost 20 years old, some of the information is out of date. The list can be downloaded for the entire nation or by state. The list is by fire department, so it will tell you how many stations a Fire Department has, but not where they are. There may be some contact information, such as address, phone number, and website.
Where do I place a Fire Station/EMS Station?
Most fire stations have one building. If this is the case, place the point at the center of the building. If the fire station operates out of the same building as a City Hall / Town Hall and/or law enforcement office, space the points out on the building so that they are not overlapping.
For more information on how to identify a Fire Station, check out the newsletter article titled Aerial Photo Interpretation Part 3: Fire Stations/EMS below.
How do I name a Fire / EMS Station?
Try to find the official name of the station from an authoritative source (station or department website), or from signage seen on or near the station building. Fire station names often have the format: <fire-department-name> <station-name or number>. For example: Denver Fire Department Station 1. Official station names sometimes have either a "-" or a "/", and while special characters should generally be avoided, slashes and dashes can be included if used in the official name.
*Occasionally, you might encounter multiple authoritative sources which cite slightly different names for the same fire station or department. As with any structure, the most local source is the one we recommend referencing: i.e., an official Facebook page managed directly by a fire station should be prioritized over a county website that lists information for that same fire station. Fire stations, especially smaller or more rural locations, commonly use Facebook to present information to the public rather than maintain a costly web presence via their own website. The official Facebook page is likely to be more accurate and up to date than the county website that is several steps removed from the source. However, since we consider both the official Facebook page and the county website to be authoritative, we would accept the name from either source. The important detail to pay attention to is name formatting consistency among all stations operating under the same department, municipality, or county. Check out the Social Media as an Authoritative Source newsletter article for additional guidance on using social media, and specifically Facebook pages as authoritative sources.
Check out our Name and Address Formatting guide for more on how to properly name fire stations. And if working from a list to edit multiple structures (e.g., a list of fire stations operating under the same department), make sure each of their names are similarly formatted.
