Fire services in York Region


Fire services in the York Region of Canada 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. Later in the 20th century full-time fire departments were created. 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. East Gwillimbury and Georgina still have some volunteer stations, but the Township of King is the only department which remains as an all-volunteer department, with a staff of 105 volunteers servicing King City, Nobelton and Schomberg.
Small local departments slowly merged to form large departments in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2001, York Region was planning to merge all fire services in the region into one large unit. Resistance from firefighters and others prevented the plan from being implemented. This was attempted again in 2013 also with no outcome.
The use of "Fire Department" gave way to "Fire and Emergency" as the firefighters' roles expanded in the 1990s.

Command

Each department has their own Chief and senior officers. The command structure is for the most part similar in the fire services across the region:
Markham
King
Central York
East Gwillimbury
Georgina
Richmond Hill
Vaughan
Whitchurch-Stouffville

Georgina

Town of Georgina Fire and Rescue provides fire fighting services to the communities of Keswick, Ontario, Sutton, Ontario and Pefferlaw, Ontario. The department deals mainly with rural fire situations, but it has marine and hazmat capabilities. Georgina Fire and Rescue has a mix of full-time and volunteer staff with total strength of 90 personnel. A fleet of 12 apparatus are spread across 3 stations. Georgina Fire and Rescue was created from the merger of several local fire departments including Keswick Fire Department and Georgina Fire Department.
;Stations
Georgina Fire Rescue launched a 34' Stanley Aluminium Fire and Rescue Boat in May 2020. At the time they are the only service with true firefighting capability for operating on the south shore of the Lake. The Fireboat is designated as Marine 2. Marine 1 is the Georgina Fire Rescue Airboat utilized for Lake Rescue during the ice and winter season. The service is supported by York Regional Police in marine firefighting on Lake Simcoe by use of MU2 Naawig, a patrol boat equipped with a water nozzle.

East Gwillimbury

East Gwillimbury Emergency Services serves the communities of Holland Landing, Ontario, Mount Albert, Ontario and Queensville, Ontario. The fire service operates over an area of 238 square kilometres or. The department has a full-time fire chief, fire prevention officer and training officer. In addition six full-time firefighters are on duty in two shifts during daytime hours in the Queensville firehall. All other firefighters are volunteers and each station has a staff of 27 and all must be residents of the Town of East Gwillimbury. The fire service is capable of handling a variety of situations, but it is mostly a rural fire service. This fire department responds to approximately 1000 emergency calls each year. Expected growth to East Gwillimbury will result in massive changes to the town's population and the change from a part-time paid on-call fire department to full-time staffed 24 hours in the near future. The service began as independent fire stations in 1970 and unified after 1997.
;Stations
King Township Fire & Emergency Services serves the communities of King City, Ontario, Schomberg, Ontario and Nobleton, Ontario. It serves an area of 333 square kilometres and a population of about 24,000 residents. The service is composed of volunteer fire fighters.
;Stations
Central York Fire Services provides fire services to both the Town of Newmarket and the Town of Aurora. It has 96 firefighters, 24 Captains and 4 Platoon Chiefs on staff at four fire stations. The fire service was created from the amalgamation of the former Town of Newmarket Fire Department and Town of Aurora Fire Department in 2002. The service has 15 vehicles of which 12 are fire fighting ones.
;Stations
Whitchurch-Stouffville Fire Department provides fire fighting services to Whitchurch–Stouffville. The services protects 38,000 residents with 24 full-time fire suppression staff, 2 full-time fire prevention Officers, training officer and a full-time administrative assistant. There are also 50 volunteer firefighters. The service has 10 vehicles in their fleet.
;Stations
Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service provides fire and emergency needs to the communities in the City of Vaughan. There are over 250 firefighters on staff all are full-time. The city did have volunteers in Woodbridge Station 7-3 and Kleinburg Station 7-4. Station 7-3 disbanded its volunteers in the early 2000s with the remainder of the volunteers being disbanded in 2013 with the closure of Station 7-4 in Kleinburg. The service deals with rural scenarios in the north / northwest and urban in the south part of the city.
;Stations
Richmond Hill Fire & Emergency Services provides fire services to the Town of Richmond Hill. It has 140 fire fighters on staff at 6 fire stations. Richmond Hill also offers specialized technical rescue services including water and ice rescue, technical rope rescue, confined space rescue, trench rescue and hazardous materials response. Richmond Hill provides dispatch services to Georgina, East Gwillimbury, Central York, Whitchurch/Stouffville and Richmond Hill.
;Stations
Markham Fire has 200 firefighters on staff and is responsible for fire support for the City of Markham, as well as Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport. The newest station is 9-9, which opened in February 2012. The service began as the Markham Village Fire Department and acquired Unionville Fire Department in 1964. The Markham Fire Department was created in 1970 and renamed with the current name in 2000. Volunteer fire members were disbanded in 1996.
Markham Fire and Emergency Services provides fire protection to the following communities in the City of Markham:
;Fire Chiefs
;Stations
Fire services on Fox Island, Georgina Island and Snake Island are provided by Georgina Island Fire Department under the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation. The department has two full time firefighters and numerous trained volunteers.
;Stations
Even though Bradford West Gwillimbury is NOT part of York Region, Bradford West Gwillimbury Fire and Emergency Services uses the same numbering system for its apparatus

Apparatus

York Region's fire apparatus use fire engine red as the base colour. Trim varies from yellow, white and blue.
Markham and Vaughan were one of a number of municipalities to have formerly used a yellow paint scheme.
APPARATUS DESIGNATIONS - The numbering works like this:
The apparatus numbers are pronounced by saying each digit individually. For example, 729 would be pronounced Seven-Two-Nine, NOT Seven Twenty Nine, and 849 would be pronounced Eight-Four-Nine, NOT Eight Forty Nine, and so on.
For units with 4 digits, such as Fire Prevention, Training, and spare apparatus, the last 3 digits are pronounced individually from the first digit. For example, 4401 would be pronounced Four-Four-Zero-One, NOT Forty-Four-O-One.
GEORGINA FIRE DEPARTMENT
STATION 1-4 - 165 The Queensway South Full-Time & Volunteer
STATION 1-6 - 37 Snooks Road Full-Time and Volunteer
STATION 1-8 270 Pefferlaw Road Volunteer Staffed
EAST GWILLIMBURY EMERGENCY SERVICES
STATION 2-4
STATION 2-6
STATION 2-8
KING TOWNSHIP FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES
STATION 3-4 - 2045 King Road, King City
STATION 3-6 - 91 Proctor Rd, Schomberg
STATION 3-8 - 5926 King Road, Nobleton
CENTRAL YORK FIRE SERVICES
STATION 4-1 - 984 Gorham St, Newmarket
STATION 4-2 - 125 McCaffrey Rd, Newmarket
STATION 4-3 - 220 Edward St, Aurora
STATION 4-4 - 1344 Wellington St E, Aurora
WHITCHURCH-STOUFFVILLE FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES
STATION 5-1 - 100 Weldon Road, Stouffville
STATION 5-2 - 15400 Hwy. 48, Ballantrae
VAUGHAN FIRE & RESCUE SERVICE
STATION 7-1 - 835 Clark Ave
STATION 7-2 - 9290 Keele St
STATION 7-3 - 325 Woodbridge Ave
STATION 7-5 - 2 Fieldstone Ave
STATION 7-6 - 120 McLeary Ct
STATION 7-7 - 40 Eagleview Heights
STATION 7-8 - Racco Pkwy
STATION 7-9 - 9601 Islington Ave
STATION 7-10 - 10800 Dufferin St
Spare
Fire Prevention
RICHMOND HILL FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES
STATION 8-1 - 191 Major Mackenzie Drive West
STATION 8-2 - 13067 Yonge Street - Oak Ridges
STATION 8-3 - 1371 16th Avenue
STATION 8-4 - 1365 Elgin Mills Road East
STATION 8-5 - 150 High Tech Road
STATION 8-6 - 101 Gamble Road
MARKHAM FIRE & EMERGENCY SERVICES
STATION 9-1 - 7801 Bayview Avenue, Thornhill
STATION 9-2 - 10 Riviera Drive, Markham
STATION 9-3 - 2930 Major MacKenzie Dr.
STATION 9-4 - 7300 Birchmount Road, Milliken
STATION 9-5 316 Main Street Unionville
STATION 9-6 - 5567 Fourteenth Avenue, Markham
STATION 9-7 - 209 Main Street Markham
STATION 9-8 - 650 Bur Oak Avenue
STATION 9-9 - 3255 Bur Oak Avenue
Georgina Island Fire Department
Although not part of the York Region's fire services, the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation has their own fire and rescue capability.
Georgina Fire Department - Chief Joseph Snake Road and Hello Road