Firefighting in the United States dates back to the earliest European colonies in the Americas. Early firefighters were simply community members who would respond to neighborhood fires with buckets. The first dedicated volunteer fire brigade was established in 1736 in Philadelphia. Insurance companies often paid these volunteer companies in return for protecting their clients.
As cities grew, this method became unreliable, and the first professional fire department was established in Cincinnati in 1853. By the 20th century, fire departments were forced to adapt to modern hazards, such as high-rise and hazardous-material fires. They also began to expand their services to include other, non-fire, public safety needs including vehicle rescue and EMS service. As of 2018, 62% of fire departments offered some form of emergency medical response.
Firefighters in the United States today are organized along paramilitary lines, utilizing modern equipment, and are most often grouped into city or county departments. In 2025, professional fire departments protect 68% of the US population, with a total of 1,216,600 firefighters serving in 27,228 fire departments nationwide and responding to emergencies from 58,150 fire stations. Union firefighters are represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). The New York City Fire Department is the largest in the United States.
Overview A fire department responds to a fire every 23 seconds throughout the United States. Fire departments responded to 26,959,000 calls for service in 2020. Of these, 64.2% were for medical help, 8% were false alarms, and 3.9% were for actual fires.
Since at least 1980, calls for fires have decreased both as a proportion of total calls and in absolute numbers, from 3,000,000 to 1,400,000 in 2011, while medical calls have increased from 5,000,000 to 19,800,000 in the same period. While some medical calls are dealt with only by ambulances, it is common for fire engines to respond to them as well.
The professionalization of American firefighting was largely a result of four factors: steam fire engines, fire insurance companies that demanded the municipalization of firefighting, and the theory that suggested that payment of wages would naturally result in improved service.Michèle Dagenais, Irene Maver, Pierre-Yves Saunier. Municipal services and employees in the modern city, p. 49 Paid firefighters may be union or non-union. Union American firefighters are represented and united in the International Association of Fire Fighters with headquarters in Washington, D.C. However, many municipalities still rely on volunteer, paid on call, or part-time firefighters. These non-full-time firefighters are rarely unionized, and their interests are represented by the National Volunteer Fire Council.
The United States Fire Administration provides national leadership to local fire services. Fire departments report fires and other incidents according to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, which maintains records of these incidents in a uniform manner. The National Fire Protection Association sets and maintains minimum standards and requirements for firefighting duties and equipment. The suppression of wildfires is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is done through the National Wildland Coordination Center.
The two million fire calls that American fire departments respond to each year represent the highest figures in the industrialized world. On average every year between 2008 and 2017, 3,190 civilians died, 16,225 were injured, and property damage reached $14.7 billion. Indirect costs, such as temporary lodging expenses, lost time at work, medical expenses, and psychological damages are equally high (the United States Fire Administration 1996). According to statistics from the American Red Cross, the annual losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters combined in the United States average just a fraction of those from fires. House fires, in particular, are one of the most common tragedies facing emergency disaster workers in recent history. According to the US Fire Administration, the United States has a more severe fire problem than is generally perceived. In inner-city Pennsylvania neighborhoods, house fires have increased significantly, especially in socially and economically disadvantaged areas. A trend in these house fires is that 60% of the houses lack working smoke detectors. Additionally, these households are prone to using supplemental heating devices and substandard extension cords that are not Underwriters Laboratories (UL) compliant. UL-compliant extension cords are labeled with information on their use, size, and rating.Dunston, 2008, p. 2
History
Firefighting in the United States can be traced back to the 17th century when, after a great conflagration in Boston in 1631, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law banning smoking in public places.
New Amsterdam established the colonies' first firefighting system in 1647.Maria Mudd-Ruth, Scott Sroka. Firefighting: Behind the Scenes, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998, p. 7 Fire wardens inspected the houses and chimneys, fining for potential hazards. An eight-man team called a Rattle-Watch patrolled the streets at night. When a fire was detected, they shook wooden rattles to alert townspeople. In 1711, the concerned Americans formed the so-called mutual fire societies, each with approximately 20 members. When a member of the society was struck by fire, other members rushed to assist. The first water-pumping engines were imported to New York in the 1730s.
Fire companies Benjamin Franklin founded the first American volunteer fire company in Philadelphia in 1736. Such companies were soon organized in other colonies. Among those who served as volunteer firefighters were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.Maria Mudd-Ruth, Scott Sroka. Firefighting: Behind the Scenes, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998, p. 8 In 1818 the first known female firefighter Molly Williams rose to prominence in New York, when she took her place with the men on the drag ropes and pulled the pumper to the fire through the deep snow. Volunteer firefighters were honored with frequent stanzas in urban newspapers and made the subject of heroizing prints by the popular American printmaking firm Currier & Ives. Nathaniel Currier, of Currier & Ives, served as a volunteer firefighter in New York City during the 1850s.
In the early days of the fire service, fire companies were, more or less, social organizations. Being an accepted member meant a certain social status in the community. Remnants of that social status can still be found today in the traditional firefighter's parade helmets that resemble top hats worn by the early firefighters. Money that was used to help fund the organization was obtained by insurance company payouts from fighting fires. Firefighters could easily tell which homeowners had fire insurance and which didn't by fire insurance marks on the front of the home. Often, it was a problem for homeowners without insurance to have the fire company respond to a fire in their home and effectively remove belongings and such, because the firefighters knew there wouldn't be any money in it for them.
The first fire companies in Washington D.C. – the Union Fire Company, the Columbia Fire Company, and the Anacostia Fire Company – were organized in 1804 to serve the White House, the Capitol, and the neighborhood of Anacostia, respectively. By the 1840s and 1850s, the differences between companies within the same city had become quite significant.
With few exceptions, like in Savannah, Georgia, firefighters denied African Americans the opportunity to join the companies or form their own ones. As early as 1818 in Philadelphia, the local free black community attempted to form the African Fire Association. Meanwhile, some southern cities, such as Charleston and Savannah, relied on African American labor.
Fire apparatus American firefighters designed, built, or specified their equipment. In particular, they dedicated themselves to the engines and viewed them as integral to the fire company's identity.Mark Tebeau. Eating smoke, p. 36
Blacksmith Patrick Lyon of Philadelphia was an innovator in the construction of firefighting apparatus. In 1800, he patented a hand-pumped engine that was the most powerful in the United States,Robert Burns, "When the Watchman Spun his Rattle, Cry Was 'Throw Out Your Buckets!'" Fire Engineering Magazine, vol. 120 (July 1976). and he built the first hose wagon in 1804, which eliminated the need for bucket brigades in cities.John Fanning Watson, Annals of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: J. M. Stoddart & Co., third edition, 1879), pp. 417-18. Lyon's masterpiece was the hand-pumper Diligent, which, at 32-years-old, outperformed the new Cincinnati-built steam pumper Young America in a famous 1852 contest.Diligent Fire Engine, from Library Company of Philadelphia.
In 1853, the first practical, steam-powered, fire engine was tested in Cincinnati (OH). It was created by Abel Shawk, Alexander Bonner Latta, and Miles Greenwood. The engine was then named Uncle Joe Ross after a city council member.
Fire departments Before the 1850s, there were only volunteer fire companies. In 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first city with a fully paid fire department, followed 11 months later by the Providence Fire Department in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1855, the Metropolitan Hook and Ladder Company Number 1 Firehouse, Washington's oldest extant firehouse, was built at Massachusetts Avenue. Then, in 1859, came the fully paid Fire Force in Indianapolis (IFD), under the guidance and authority of Mayor Samuel D. Maxwell, going so far as to ban the volunteer departments from the city. As a proud Norse Celt, he vowed that "Indianapolis will only accept aggressive, paid firemen possessing the bravery and strength of a Highland Warrior and the dedication to battle like the Viking". Many volunteer companies disbanded around America's larger cities; however, volunteer fire departments still protected property and played an important role, as they do even today. Later, the specialized life-saving units in American fire departments - the pompier corps - were formed.
In the 20th century, the nature of an American firefighter's job began to change. Structural firefighting was still the main purpose of the department, but more specialized training and education, such as for high-rise structure fires, confined space environments, and building construction education, were included and emphasized. Other disciplines were taken on as responsibilities in lifesaving. An example of such is the practice of Paramedicine, which debuted in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Presently, almost all fire departments across the United States are trained in and perform technical rescue, vehicle rescue, high-angle rescue, wildland firefighting, and hazardous materials response. Additionally, almost all career departments, as well as many volunteer departments, have emergency medical assets readily available.
Several notable events have resulted in the deaths of many firefighters. Japanese planes attacked Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) personnel responding to the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, killing three. 343 New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firefighters were killed when the World Trade Center towers collapsed during the attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2007, the Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina, killed nine members of the City of Charleston Fire Department.