The City of Stafford, Texas is located in East Fort Bend County adjacent to the southwest side of Houston. Founded as a agricultural community, the City of Stafford has evolved into a city with all the modern conveniences, attractions and amenities of a modern community. Charged with protecting this community, and surrounding areas from fire, the Stafford Fire Department was created by the City of Stafford. From a 1-station all volunteer department located in the center of the city, the Stafford Fire Department has evolved, like the city, into a modern fire and rescue department providing many services for our community.
Operating from 3-fire stations throughout our response area, the department fields modern apparatus and equipment for incident responses of any nature. Currently 2-Engines, 2-107' Quint's, 1-3000 gallon Water Tender, 1-Technical Rescue Unit, 1-Booster Unit, 2-High Water Units, 1-Rescue Boat, 1-Utility Vehicle, 1-Battalion Command Vehicle and 2-Chief's Vehicles are available to respond to calls in our community 24-hours per day.
Composed of Volunteer, Duty Crew and Full-Time personnel, our department responds to over 4000 calls per year covering a wide range of incident types. Services provided by the department include Fire Suppression, Fire Inspections and Investigations, Paramedic Level 1st Responder, Vehicle and Machinery Extrication, Technical Rescue and Operations Level Hazardous Materials Response.
Covering a total of 10.2 square miles, our department response area offers many challenges. Included in this response area are traditional residential neighborhoods, apartment complexes, hotels, shopping centers, large industrial and commercial warehouse developments as well as major roadways, freeways, railroads and 2-below grade roadways.
Part of the normal coverage area includes 3-areas outside of the City of Stafford. The neighboring City of Meadows Place, unincorporated areas of Fort Bend County and unincorporated areas of Harris County are also covered by our department by written agreement as part of our 1st due area.
In addition to the normal response area, our department is also part of numerous mutual-aid and automatic-aid agreements with surrounding departments and agencies, In particular, the automatic-aid agreements with neighboring Missouri City and Sugar Land have garnered a great deal of attention from other area departments. Because of the efficiencies and benefits automatic-aid agreements bring, these are often replicated by other departments. The 3-fire departments respond either together, or for each other, to a variety of incidents types. From Box Alarms for structural fires and hazardous materials incidents, to EMS responses and station relocation's, the 3 departments assist each other on almost a daily basis in a near seamless fashion.
Likewise, in conjunction with the Missouri City, Richmond and Rosenberg Fire Departments, we comprise the Fort Bend County Technical Rescue Team (FBCTRT). This team, funded by a UASI grant, initially began as a structural collapse team. Over time additional disciplines added include confined space, low angle and high angle rope and trench rescue. In this same vane our department has also began adding water rescue capabilities with the acquisition of 2-M-1078 High Water vehicles and a semi-rigid R-One zodiac style boat for use by personnel trained for swift water rescue.
Akin to the above cooperative efforts, the department is actively involved in the Texas Intra-state Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS) since its beginning. This network divides the state into regions where resources are coordinated to provide assistance for all-hazards, wild land and public health emergencies throughout Texas and adjoining states. Deployments for the department have included the 1st ever for TIFMAS in the wake of Hurricane Ike deploying to Jamaica Beach, Texas as well as to Jefferson County, Texas and Southern Louisiana for post-hurricane assistance.
Through the years the Stafford Fire Department has evolved to keep pace with the needs of our community. Through the dedicated service of the members of the department and the unwavering support of our city government, the future for the department is one filled with excitement and constant development to better serve our communities.
