Fire services in York Region are provided for and by each municipality. There are 35 fire stations across the region. Most services consist of full time members, but some services have volunteer firefighters.
The departments in south York Region deal mostly with residential and commercial incidents. The northern departments deal with rural, residential and agricultural fire needs.
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Fire departments in York Region date back to the 19th Century and all were volunteer units. It was until later in the 20th Century did full time fire departments emerge. Some departments in the region still retain volunteer units. East Gwillimbury Fire was the last all volunteer service in the region until 2008 when the first crew of career firefighters was hired.
Small local departments slowly merged to form large departments in the 1960s and 1970s. În the late 1990s, York Region was planning to merge all of York's fire services into one large unit. Resistance from firefighters and others prevent the plan from coming into reality.
The use of "Fire Department" gave way to "Fire and Emergency" as the firefighter's roles expanded in the 1990s.
Each department has their own Chief and senior officers (Deputy Chiefs). The command structure is for the most part similar in the fire services across the region:
Markham
King
Central York
East Gwillimbury
Georgina
Richmond Hill
Vaughan
Whitchurch-Stouffville
| Town of Georgina Fire and Rescue |
|
| Established | 1978 |
| Staffing | Composite - Full Time and volunteer |
| Strength | 90 |
| Stations | 3 |
| Engines | 3 |
| Trucks | 2 |
| Rescues | 3 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Bill O'Neill |
Town of Georgina Fire and Rescue provides fire fighting services to the communities of Keswick, Ontario, Sutton, Ontario and Pefferlaw, Ontario. The department deals mainly with rural fire situations (residential, commercial and agriculture fires), but it has marine and hazmat capabilities. Georgina Fire and Rescue has a mix of full time and volunteer staff with total strength of 90 personnel. A fleet of 19 apparatus are spread across 3 stations. Georgina Fire and Rescue was created from the merger of several local fire departments including Keswick Fire Department and Georgina Fire Department.
| East Gwillimbury Emergency Services Department |
|
| Staffing | Volunteer (Queensville 2 Full-time daytime weekdays) |
| Strength | 27 per hall |
| Stations | 3 |
| Engines | 4 |
| Rescues | 3 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Ken Beckett |
East Gwillimbury Emergency Services Department serves the communities of Holland Landing, Ontario, Mount Albert, Ontario and Queensville, Ontario. The fire service operates over an area of 238 square kilometres or 91.89 square miles (238.0 km2). The department has a full time fire chief, fire prevention officer and training officer. In addition two full time firefighters are on duty during weekday daytime hours in the Queensville firehall. All other firefighters are volunteers and each station has a staff of 27 and all must be residence of the Town of East Gwillimbury. The fire service is capable of handling a variety of situations, but it is mostly a rural fire unit. This fire department responds to approximately 1000 emergency calls each year. Expected growth to East Gwillimbury will result in massive changes to the town's population and the change from a part time paid on call fire department to full time staffed 24 hours in the near future.
| King Township Fire & Emergency Services |
|
| Motto: "That to The" | |
| Staffing | Composite - Full Time and volunteer |
| Strength | 105 |
| Stations | 3 |
| Trucks | 19 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Bryan Burbidge |
King Township Fire & Emergency Services serves the communities of King City, Ontario, Schomberg, Ontario and Nobleton, Ontario. It serves an area of 3000 square kilometres and a population of almost 20,000 residents. The towns fire service is composed of full time and volunteer fire fighters or fire suppression officers.
| Central York Fire Services |
|
| Established | 2002 |
| Staffing | Full time |
| Strength | 80 firefighters + 29 senior officers |
| Stations | 4 |
| Engines | 4 |
| Trucks | 2 - aerials |
| Squads | 3 |
| Rescues | 1 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| Fire chief | John Molyneaux |
Central York Fire Services provides fire services to the Town of Newmarket and Aurora. It has 80 firefighters and 29 senior officers on staff at three fire stations. The fire service was created from the merger of the former Town of Newmarket Fire Department and Town of Aurora Fire Department in 2002. The fire services has 15 vehicles of which 12 are fire fighting ones.
| Whitchurch–Stouffville Fire Department |
|
| Established | 1898 (Village of Stouffville) |
| Staffing | Composite - Full Time and volunteer |
| Strength | 64 |
| Stations | 2 |
| Engines | 3 |
| Trucks | 9 |
| Rescues | 1 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Chris Powers |
Whitchurch-Stouffville Fire Department provides fire fighting services to Whitchurch–Stouffville and Stouffville, Ontario. The services protects 38,000 residents with 24 full-time fire suppression staff, 2 full-time fire prevention Officers, training officer and a full-time administrative assistant. There are also 50 trained volunteer firefighters. The fire service has 10 vehicles in the their fleet.
| Vaughan Fire and Rescue |
|
| Motto: Pride and Honour | |
| Staffing | Composite - Full Time and volunteer |
| Strength | 250 |
| Stations | 9 |
| Engines | 5 |
| Rescues | 2 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Greg Senay |
Vaughan Fire and Rescue provides fire and emergency needs to the communities in the City of Vaughan (Maple, Ontario, Kleinburg, Ontario, Concord, Ontario, Thornhill, Ontario west of Yonge Street and Woodbridge, Ontario). There are over 250 firefighters on staff with a mix of full time and volunteers. The fire services deals with rural scenarios in the north and urban in the south part of the city.
A new station, Station 7-10, is being built at 10800 Dufferin Street (Dufferin Street & Teston Road) and planned opening early 2012.
| Richmond Hill Fire Department |
|
| Established | 1881 |
| Staffing | Full Time |
| Strength | 116 |
| Stations | 5 |
| Engines | 4 |
| Trucks | 2 |
| Rescues | 2 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Steve Kraft |
Richmond Hill Fire Department provides fire services to the Town of Richmond Hill. It has 132 fire fighters on staff at 5 fire stations. Richmond Hill also offers specialized technical rescue services including water and ice rescue, technical rope rescue, confined space rescue, trench rescue and hazardous materials response. Richmond Hill also provides dispatch services to Georgina, East Guillimbury, Central York, Whitchurch/Stouffville and Richmond Hill.
| Markham Fire and Emergency Services |
|
| Established | 1970 |
| Staffing | Full time |
| Strength | 200 |
| Stations | 8 |
| EMS Units | see York Region EMS |
| EMS Level | ALS & BLS |
| Fire chief | Bill Snowball |
Markham Fire has 200 firefighters on staff is responsible for fire support for the Town of Markham, as well as Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport. The newest station is 9-3, which opened in July 2010. The service began as the Markham Village Fire Department and acquired Unionville Fire Department in 1964. The Markham Fire Department was created in 1970 and renamed with the current name around the late 1990s.
Markham Fire and Emergency Services provides fire protection to the communities in the Town of Markham:
A new station, Station 9-9, will be openning 2012 in Cornell next to Markham-Stouffville Hospital.
Even though Bradford West Gwillimbury is NOT part of York Region, it uses the same numbering system for its apparatus (I.E.: Station 1 is numbered as 10-1)
York Region's fire apparatus use fire engine red as the base colour. Trim varies from yellow, white and blue.
Markham and Vaughan were one of a number of municipalities to have used a yellow paint scheme.
APPARATUS DESIGNATIONS - The numbering works like this:
The apparatus numbers are pronounced by saying the last 2 digits individually from the first. For example, 729 would be pronounced Seven-Two-Nine, NOT Seven Twenty Nine, and 849 would be pronounced Eight-Four-Nine, NOT Eight Forty Nine, and so on.
For units with 4 digits, such as Fire Prevention, Training, and spare apparatus, the last 3 digits are pronounced individually from the first digit. For example 4401 would be pronounced Four-Four-Zero-One, NOT Forty-Four-O-One.
GEORGINA
STATION 1-4 - 165 The Queensway South (Keswick) Full-Time & Volunteer
STATION 1-6 - 37 Snooks Road (Sutton) Full-Time and Volunteer
STATION 1-8 270 Pefferlaw Road (Pefferlaw) Volunteer Staffed
EAST GWILLIMBURY
STATION 2-4 (Holland Landing - Volunteer)
STATION 2-6 (Mount Albert - Volunteer)
STATION 2-8 (Queensville - Full-Time (Mon-Fri, Days) and Volunteer Staff)
KING TOWNSHIP
STATION 3-4 - 2045 King Road, King City (HQ)
STATION 3-6 - 91 Proctor Rd, Schomberg
STATION 3-8 - 5926 King Road, Nobleton
CENTRAL YORK
STATION 4-1 - 984 Gorham St, Newmarket (HQ)
STATION 4-2 - 125 McCaffrey Rd, Newmarket
STATION 4-3 - 220 Edward St, Aurora
STATION 4-4 - 1344 Wellington St E, Aurora
WHITCHURCH-STOUFFVILLE
STATION 5-1 - 100 Weldon Road, Stouffville (HQ)
STATION 5-2 - 15400 Hwy. 48, Ballantrae
VAUGHAN FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE
STATION 7-1 - 835 Clarke Ave (Thornhill)
STATION 7-2 - 9290 Keele St (Maple)
STATION 7-3 - 325 Woodbridge Ave (Woodbridge)
STATION 7-4 - 10665 Islington Ave (Kleinburg)
STATION 7-5 - 2 Fieldstone Ave (Woodbridge)
STATION 7-6 - 120 McLeary Ct (Concord)
STATION 7-7 - 40 Eagleview Heights (Vellore)
STATION 7-8 - Racco Pkwy (Concord)
STATION 7-9 - 9601 Islington Ave (Kleinburg)
Other
Fire Prevention
RICHMOND HILL FIRE DEPARTMENT
STATION 8-1 - 191 Major Mackenzie Drive West (HQ)
STATION 8-2 - 13067 Yonge Street - Oak Ridges
STATION 8-3 - 1371 16th Avenue
STATION 8-4 - 1365 Elgin Mills Road East
STATION 8-5 - 150 High Tech Road
MARKHAM FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES
STATION 9-1 - 7801 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill
STATION 9-2 - 10 Riviera Drive, Markham
STATION 9-4 - 7300 Birchmount Road, Milliken
STATION 9-5 (HQ) 316 Main Street Unionville
STATION 9-6 - 5567 Fourteenth Avenue, Markham
STATION 9-7 - 209 Main Street Markham
STATION 9-8 - 650 Bur Oak Drive
| North: Bradford West Gwillimbury Fire & Emergency Services | ||
| West: Brampton Fire and Rescue | Fire Services in York Region | East: Fire Services in Durham Region |
| South: Toronto Fire Services |