About Litchfield Fire Rescue
Litchfield Fire Rescue is an “All Hazards” combination Fire / EMS department.
The services we provide and respond to range from structure and wildland fires, basic and advanced life support emergency medical care, auto extrication, hazardous materials mitigation, natural disaster response, public assistance calls, fire inspections, building plan reviews, public fire education, and community events. We protect a geographic area of 15.31 square miles and respond to approximately 700 incidents annually.
The department consists of two full time firefighter / EMTs who work Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm. One of the two FF/EMTs is certified at the Paramedic level of care. They are the first response during the work week when most of our on-call force is out of town working their regular, full time jobs. The Fire Chief is an appointed part time position that oversees the full time employees and the on-call firefighter / EMT force of approximately 30 other members of the Litchfield community.
All our first responders with the exception of our newest members are Nationally Certified EMTs. Their skill levels range from EMT, Advanced EMT to Paramedic. We currently have (6) Advanced EMTs and (5) Paramedics on the department to provide you with advanced level medical services. We carry all necessary advanced life saving equipment on our fire apparatus. Our ambulance service is provided contractually by the Hudson Fire Department who also respond at the advanced level of care. We do not transport, but we provide all the life saving care until your transport to a nearby local hospital.
Our on-call members are what the fire service calls “paid-on-call”. Each paid-on-call member has a full-time career outside the fire service and chooses to serve our community and receive compensation for his/her time. The members respond from their homes to the fire station when notified of an emergency if they are available to respond or not out of town for work or leisure. Most get paid an hourly rate ranging from ($12-$18) per hour depending on their level of certification and experience. Our mission is to provide safe, efficient emergency and non-emergency services while being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of our community.
The men and women of Litchfield Fire Rescue are your neighbors, friends, family and co-workers who give much of their free time to protect you and your families while still holding down regular full time jobs. They spend 100’s of hours a year obtaining certified fire and medical classes with almost weekly fire and medical training to keep their skills honed. The majority of the department are Litchfield taxpayers like you. We are all very mindful of what purchases we make or when we request to add additional services. This is all in an effort to provide the town a very cost efficient and professional emergency response to those who live and travel through our Litchfield community.