For the 40th year, Firehouse shares and compares statistics about company and department levels, funding, staffing and pay for the career fire service.
A total of 115 fire departments participated in this year’s survey, representing 36 states, the District of Columbia, two Canadian provinces and one Mexican state. The departments represented in this latest survey protect 59,932,174 people, and have budgets totaling more than $12 billion. They provide the services with 2,213 engine companies, 856 ladder companies, 1,167 ambulances and numerous specialized units. These departments responded to more than 650,000 fire calls, more than 4 million EMS calls and more than 5.3 million total calls in 2020.
As with last year’s survey, the COVID-19 crisis had many fire departments too busy handling the pandemic to respond. We sincerely understand and hope that those fire departments return to the National Run Survey next year. To those departments that were able to respond, our sincere thanks. Best healthy wishes to all.
