Firebaugh Vol. Fire Department

The Firebaugh Vol. Fire Department is located in the California Central San Joaquin Valley.   Firebaugh is located approx. 40 miles west of Fresno, and 25 miles south west from Madera, bordering Fresno and Madera County lines.  The City of Firebaugh has a population of approx. 6,200.    

The Firebaugh Vol Fire Department, offically organized in 1920, is one of the oldest continuously operating all volunteer fire departments in the San Joaquin Valley.  The department was one of the first volunteer fire departments in the Central California Valley to respond to all medical emergencies, and was the first such non-ambulance operating fire departments to do so, with staffing composed of certified emergency medical technicians.   Currently the FVFD has 23 active members, several members being cross trained certified EMT-1's with AED certification, and other members trained in professional first-aid and CPR. 

On Sept. 29, 2002 Fire Chief J. Borboa announced that the FVFD put into service, two LP500 Bi-Phasic Automated External Defibrillators.   The acquisition of both AEDs could not have been accomplished without the assistance and perseverance of Ms. Cindy McCoy, Project Coordinator for the Community Hospital's Cardiac Care Project, and the generosity of Mr. Larry Kitahara, President of Kitahara GMC-Pontiac of Fresno.   One AED unit was acquired through the Community Hospitals Cardiac Care Project and the second unit was donated to the FFD by Mr. Kitahara.    Monetary Donations by members of the Firebaugh community were used by the FVFD to purchase two AED trainers to provide continued training for members of the FVFD.

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 The fire sirens throughout town are set-up to alert members of the community, and of the FVFD of an emergency requiring an immediate response by the fire dept.   Many times people ask why the fire sirens cycle once,  and other times cycle as many as four times.   Well here is the reason; the number of siren activations (cycles) is based on the nature of the emergency. 

1 Cycle is for an injury motor vehicle accident, aka mva.

2 Cycles are for vegetation fires, or "other" types of fires.

4 Cycles are for possible & or confirmed structure fires,

12 Cycles are for a city wide emergency, with the specifics being advised over the public address (PA) systems of emergency vehicles.

All information pertaining to the emergency call is paged to the fire dept members via alpha numeric pagers.   These pagers advise of the nature, location, and any additional information about the emergency.    For emergency medical calls, the sirens are not activated,  all information  is sent via the pagers, to  reduce the  frequency in usage of the fire sirens.
 
    The next time you hear the fire sirens, there is an emergency is progress, and the fire dept will be responding with multiple emergency vehicles to the location of the emergency.    All emergency medical calls are paged via the alpha numeric pagers, to help reduce the number of times the fire sirens are activated.    Please remember, as with any emergency vehicle traveling Code-3 (Emergency lights and sirens), please pull over to the right to allow the emergency vehicles to have the right of way, who knows they may be responding to an emergency of a friend or family member.