Welcome to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
We protect a county with a population of just over 2.2 million residents. We respond
to a 17,500 square mile region through a combination of 81 different facilities
with over 1,200 employees. Our goal is to serve our communities with the best in
fire protection and offer a professional and dedicated response when citizens of
San Bernardino County call for help. And in the course of a year, we respond to
tens of thousands of those calls. County Fire protects more than 60 communities,
including the Cities of Needles, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Victorville, Hesperia,
Yucca Valley, and Adelanto. We also host the California Urban Search and Rescue
Team (CA-RTF-6) staffed by 60 highly trained rescue professionals.
We offer services beyond fire suppression and protection. The Office of Emergency
Services provides disaster assistance to all 24 cities and towns in our county as
well as support to the county. Our OES staff has ensured the County is officially
"StormReady" as well as organizing the County's participation in the multi-agency
disaster response exercise Golden Guardian. OES also lead the County's participation
in the Great California Shake Out, the largest earthquake preparedness exercise
in US history, since its kickoff in 2008. Exercises like these are designed to better
prepare the department, the County and the citizens for a major disaster.
County Fire is especially proud of its volunteers in the
Emergency Communication Service
(amateur or ham radio) and
Community Emergency Response Teams.
These volunteers give of their time to help protect their communities and improve
disaster preparedness, response and communications.
The Office of the Fire Marshal also boasts a well organized and well trained division,
which includes not only the fire marshal, but also fire prevention, fire investigations,
public education, planning & engineering, hazardous materials emergency response,
household hazardous waste and records retention. Another County Fire department
is the Support Services Division which includes vehicle maintenance, warehouse services,
and facility maintenance. Our Training Division provides a variety of training courses
and includes an EMS section which is staffed with two registered nurses and a paramedic
as certified trainers. The Training Division is also responsible for the department
safety programs. Located a mile to the west is our Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting
(ARFF) training center which is where firefighters are trained in all aspects of
FAA-approved aircraft firefighting.
County Fire's Public Relations Office disperses critical information to residents
as well as coordinating with the area's extensive media market before, during, and
after disasters. County Fire is a member of the CONFIRE JPA for dispatching and
mapping services. Our annual call volume is about 68,100 calls for service and is
dispatched out of our dispatch center in Rialto.
Please tour our website which is undergoing changes to make it as interactive as
possible while providing the most useful and up-to-date information.
As Fire Chief of County Fire, I strive to fully embody the three tenets of our standard
of commitment: Courage, Integrity and Service. Please call us at (909) 387-5940
with any questions or concerns and thank you for allowing us to serve you with a
department that is committed to providing "Premier Fire Services in Southern California."