Fire Department
Red Wing Fire Department Response Area
The primary fire service area is 64 square miles & includes the City of Red Wing, Prairie Island Indian Community, and Wacouta Township.
The primary ambulance service area is 262 square miles, including 36 square miles in Wisconsin, and serves 23,000 people.
Summary: Call for public assists have jumped 112% since 2019; these are primarily responses to help someone who has fallen or to check on an outdoor burning complaint. Calls to respond to a motor vehicle accident hit a five-year high with 108 incidents in 2022 but dropped to 90 in 2023.
Details: Red Wing’s Fire Department is a combination fire department staffed by 28 full-time Firefighter/Paramedics and 30 Paid-on-Call firefighters. Personnel are on duty 24-7 every day to respond to fire and emergency medical incidents. Services include fire suppression, advanced medical care, technical rescue, disaster management, fire prevention, and public education. See below for definitions of calls.
Source: City of Red Wing Fire Department, 2023
Fire Department Calls for Service
Cancelled: Any response when Fire Department staff was cancelled prior to arriving on scene, cancelled due to no patient at an address, cancelled by police, or cancelled by a mutual aid agency.
Declined Interfacility Transfers: Any response when staff had to decline a request by a hospital to transfer a patient to another hospital. This usually happens because of a lack of Fire Department staff available.
Fires: Any response to a structure fire, mobile home fire, commercial building fire, brush fire, car fire, boat fire, or any other fire.
Fire Alarms – No Fire: Any response to an activated fire alarm, either in a commercial building or in a residential house.
Fire Calls – Other: Any response that does not involve a fire. This could include things like a smoke scare, when power lines are down, or other electrical issues.
HazMat Incidents: Any response to a natural gas leak, carbon monoxide leak, fuel spill, or hazardous materials leak.
Motor Vehicle Accidents: Any response to a motor vehicle crash. This includes when staff transports someone from a crash, and also when staff does not need to transport anyone but a person is evaluated on the scene.
Public Assists: Any response to reset a fire alarm, check on a burning complaint, or execute a lift assist (help someone who fell with no injury).
Rescues: Any response to a rescue that doesn’t involve a fire. An example is rescuing a hiker on a bluff.
Station Coverage: This happens when all the Fire Department’s on-duty staff are out assisting others, and all the off-duty career staff and all paid-on-call staff need to come to the station so they’re available for a possible next call.
Fire Department Inspections
Summary: Fire safety inspections and re-inspections increased significantly in 2019 to make up for a staff vacancy in 2018. Fire prevention is a key focus of the department.
Details: Places like hotels/motels, schools, jails, adult-care facilities, industries, and businesses must be inspected every two or three years, depending on state law for each category. Red Wing’s Fire Prevention Division provides services such as fire inspections, investigations, reviews of sprinklers & fire alarms, and public education.
Source: City of Red Wing Fire Department, 2023
Fire Department Training Hours
Summary: Fire department staff trained a total of 11,438 hours in 2023. Training for fires made up 55% of that training.
Details: A Fire Marshal is a high-level firefighter who enforces fire codes, investigates fires, and oversees fire prevention efforts. A Firefighter/ Paramedic fights fires, responds to life-threatening emergencies, and provides diagnoses & medical procedures on the scene.
Source: City of Red Wing Fire Department, 2021-2023