Operations

Department Operations
The Parsons Fire Department is a fully paid department that maintains a staff of five on duty at all times. During normal working shifts there are six firefighters on duty. Four of those firefighters are at Station #1 and two at Station #2. The fire chief responds on duty or from home. Off duty firefighters are requested on large incidents, and if additional help is needed neighboring departments will assist. Average response time to an incident is four minutes.

Emergency Response
The fire department responds to fires, vehicle accidents, life threatening medical/trauma emergencies, technical rescues (rope, trench, water), hazardous material releases, and disasters.

Nine of our department personnel completed 12 days of rescue team training in 2007. The rescue team is comprised of members from Parsons, Labette Health EMS, Chanute, Neodesha, Iola, and Coffeyville. Presently there are 24 trained rescue team members. The training was made possible by a regional homeland security grant. Training consisted of confined space rescue, trench rescue, rope rescue, and structural collapse rescue.

Equipment
Our fleet of apparatus and trailers includes three 1,500 gpm pumpers, a 100-foot aerial platform truck, rescue truck, trench rescue trailer, hazardous materials trailer, and an administrative pick-up. We also have a rescue boat. The citizens of Parsons passed a 1/2-cent sales tax in 2013 that will allow us to update equipment over the next 10 years. In December of 2014, the customized engine and the platform arrived for service in Parsons.