Country United States County Santa Clara Annual calls 87,000 | State California City San Jose Fire chief Curtis Jacobson | |
The San Jose Fire Department (SJFD) provides fire protection, rescue and emergency medical services to the city of San José, California, United States. The San Jose Fire Department protects the third largest city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego) and the tenth largest city in the nation.
Contents
Coverage
The San Jose Fire Department's jurisdiction covers San José’s incorporated city limits and unincorporated areas of the County of Santa Clara totaling approximately 200 square miles and one million residents. SJFD is the emergency service provider for a number of high-hazard occupancies, including an International Airport; a municipal airport; 7 major hospitals (including 3 trauma centers, and 7 emergency departments); the SAP Center, home of the NHL San Jose Sharks, (maximum occupancy 20,000); San José State University (the oldest public institution of higher education on the West Coast), student population of 31,906; three regional super malls; and over 516 high-rise structures.
Call Volume
The San Jose Fire Department responded to 87,000 incidents in Fiscal Year 2015-2016 and is expected to respond to 89,000 in FY2016-2017. Less than 62% of these incidents were medical emergencies. The remaining 38% included 2,100 fires and 7,000 rescue, HazMat, USAR and other non-fire emergencies.
Organization
The San Jose Fire Department is organized into five bureaus of operations: the Bureau of Administrative Services (BAS), the Bureau of Field Operations (BFO), the Bureau of Support (BOS), the Bureau of Fire Prevention (BFP), and the Bureau of Fire Communications (BFC).
Services
The San Jose Fire Department is an “all risk” department meaning that it has the trained personnel and equipment to mitigate a variety of emergencies, and provides a wide array of services throughout the city. These include:
• Fire Suppression: Firefighters and fire apparatus extinguish fires of all types, including structure fires, vehicle fires, and vegetation fires.
• Advanced Life Support (ALS): All San Jose Fire Engines and Trucks have firefighters trained to provide specialized medical care. All firefighters are Emergency Medical Technicians. Some are EMT-Paramedics, meaning they have the special training and skills to treat patients with drugs, to intubate patients who are not breathing, to gain intravenous access, to provide electrical therapy (defibrillate) patients and much more. This level of care is known as Advanced Life Support.
• Urban Search and Rescue (USAR): Rescue teams are prepared to handle Confined Space, Low-Angle, High-Angle, Trench, Swift-water, Open water, Flood, Collapse and a variety of other technical rescues. Several department USAR members also serve on the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 3. The San Jose Fire Department USAR team has been certified as a Type I resource, the highest level of USAR capability.
• Hazardous Materials (HazMat): A Hazardous Incident Team is trained to the HazMat Specialist level to identify hazardous materials using technical test procedures and contain, neutralize or otherwise mitigate dangerous gases, liquids or solids. The San Jose Fire Department HazMat team has been certified as a Type I resource, the highest level of HazMat capability.
• Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting: The department provides airplane crash fire suppression and rescue services by a specially equipped and trained crew based at the Norm Mineta San José International Airport.
• Fire Prevention: Firefighters and Fire Prevention Inspectors help ensure schools, businesses, and multi-occupancy dwellings follow fire safety codes and are safe for residents. While on emergency incidents such as medical calls, firefighters routinely check for smoke detectors and offer detectors or replace batteries.
• Public Education: Firefighters meet with the public to do home safety inspections, teach families about “Exit Drills in the Home,” teach fire safety techniques such as “Stop, Drop and Roll” in schools, and distribute fire or home safety literature.
• Emergency Preparedness: The Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Services helps prepare the City to handle major incidents such as earthquakes, while firefighters work with the public to encourage basic preparedness for routine or major catastrophes.
Operations
The San Jose Fire Department currently operates out of 33 fire stations located throughout the city, organized into five battalions. Each battalion is commanded by a Battalion Chief. The following charts list the Battalions, the Stations within each Battalion, and the apparatus at each station.
Engines, Trucks, Squads and Battalion apparatus are staffed throughout the year. Some Wildland apparatus are not staffed during summer months. Under "Other", vans, utilities, reserve engines, air units, fire support units, rescue units, USAR trailers, and the USAR boat are unstaffed - personnel from Engines, Trucks and Squads staff those apparatus when they are needed to respond.