Welcome to the
San Juan County Fire Department
The first volunteer fire departments in San Juan County were established in 1962. The volunteer fire departments, along with the County Fire Marshal, were consolidated in 2001 to create the San Juan County Fire Department. The Fire Department now has a Fire Chief, a Deputy Fire Chief, a Fire Marshal, and 4 Captains.
San Juan County Fire Department consists of an Administration Office and 14 volunteer fire districts operating out of 23 stations with approximately 360 ACTIVE volunteers. They provide First Response Fire/Medical Services in conjunction with Paramedic Ambulances, first response hazardous materials, fire suppression, wild-land firefighting and rescue services including water, high angle, search and rescue and vehicle extrication. All new recruits are trained to IFSAC Firefighter I level in the first year.
The San Juan County Fire Department covers 5,520 square miles in San Juan County PLUS 1,200 square miles of neighboring counties, Colorado, and Arizona.
San Juan County Fire Department responded to over 7600 calls in 2008. On average 30% are Emergency Medical related, 30% are for non-emergency related medical assistance, 10% are wildland fires, 10% are good intention false alarms, 10% are fire assists, and 10% are actual fires other than widland, i.e. vehicles, structures, oil and gas equipment, pipelines.
Volunteers devote many hours to their communities and save an estimated $10,000,000 a year in salaries, labor costs and taxes that would be required to staff each station 24/7/365 with 3 firefighters. The services they provide are beyond value to their communities.
The Quarter Percent Fire Excise Tax money is used to operate the San Juan County Fire Department and the Ambulance Service. We are very fortunate to have the citizens of San Juan County support the volunteer efforts with their passing of the Quarter Percent Fire Excise tax when asked to do so. Annual budget for the SJCFD: $1.2M from County General Fund, $80K from State EMS Fund, $2.5M from County Fire Protection GRT, $2.5M from State Fire Fund.
The San Juan County Fire Department Wildland Firefighting Team earns over $250,000 a year to support the nominal fee paid to volunteers.
Mission Statement
The San Juan County Fire Department provides fire prevention, suppression, rescue, and basic emergency medical services to the citizens and visitors of San Juan County
Vision Statement
The San Juan County Fire Department is a professional emergency services organization embracing modern concepts of service delivery while maintaining costs of providing these services below the norm.
