Fire Services in York Region

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.

History

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.

Command

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

• Chief
• Deputy Chief (2)

King

• Chief and Community Emergency Management Coordinator
• Deputy Chief and alternate Community Emergency Management......
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