Elmira City Fire & Rescue

101 W. Second St. Elmira, NY 14901

Chief Patrick Bermingham   (607) 737-5714

 

Fire Department Run Totals 2008 = 3,132

       Our fire department services the City of Elmira, the county seat of Chemung County. We are located in South Central New York State in an area known as the Finger Lakes Region (Click here for a map).  The city is approximately 8 sq. miles with a population of about 28,000 people.  Our department staffing is 60 uniformed fire fighters and four civilian support personnel. Four shifts of 10-12 firefighters cover the city at all times with the ability to page more off-duty firefighters as emergencies warrant. The vehicle fleet consists of two front-line class A pumpers, one 95' ladder truck,  the deputy chief's vehicle and a number of utility and reserve vehicles.

         Our uniformed personnel are represented professionally by the International Association of Fire Fighters or I.A.F.F.  Our Local is number 709 with our sister local in neighboring Corning, NY Local 932.  The union is an international labor union representing over 3,000 departments and companies in North America and is AFL-CIO accredited. Our local is headed by a five person executive board with a three person board of trustees.  In addition, each of the four shifts is represented by two stewards. Contact information can be found on the Union Officer's page. 

         Our department is activated via the County wide 911 phone system over a dedicated fire frequency from the Communications Center at City Hall. Elmira is department number six of twenty-one departments in Chemung County. The response time to most of our 2700 calls a year is under three minutes.  We provide not only fire protection for the city but also respond to emergency medical calls, rescue calls, hazardous material emergencies and several other emergencies that we might be equipped to handle.

      We are also responsible, through our Fire Prevention Bureau, for things like State Building Code Enforcement, arson investigations, building safety inspections, in-school fire prevention education and Operation EDITH and a juvenile fire starters deterrent program. More information is available on these programs at the Bureau's page on this site.

      Tours are available to groups at any of our stations. Our only guidelines are that we are contacted one week in advance to schedule around our training periods. We try to keep tours to the day-time hours but early evening is ok also. We would also like to try to keep groups of children to around no more than 25 with two to three adults to help chaperone. The tour lasts about an hour and the children are given a chance to see all the equipment and vehicles that firefighters use every day. To schedule a tour or for more information please call the Business Office at (607) 737-5714 or the shift commander at 737-5720.

FFs Overly and Jones showing the old ladder truck to students.

Views of the City from the Aerial Truck