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SITE NAVIGATION

About Sacramento Fire

Sacramento Fire History

About Sacramento Fire

Sacramento Fire History

Sacramento is the capital of the State of California, the county seat for Sacramento County, and the central City for the four-county Sacramento Metropolitan Area. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River, it is affectionately known as the 'River City.'

Sacramento has a total incorporated area of 99.92 square miles, of which 97.92 square miles is land and 2 square miles is water. The Sacramento Fire Department also serves the Natomas Fire District, 42 square miles and 2,848 residents, and the Pacific Fruitridge Fire District, 4.6 square miles and 46,382 residents. The total service area is 146.52 square miles.

Black and white photo of four firefighters and a dog on a a horse and carriage.

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Sacramento has a vibrant history that dates back to 1839, when John Sutter arrived on the shore near the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. Sutter's Fort was established to develop an agricultural community, and the settlement began attracting business people looking for opportunities.

When gold was discovered in the nearby foothills at a sawmill (Sutter's Mill in Coloma) in 1848, the proximity to the river transformed the Sutter's Fort community into a trading and mining epicenter of what was later called the 'Gold Rush.'

black and white photo of horse and carriage with palm trees in the background

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At the time of the gold rush, Sacramento primarily consisted of hastily built wooden structures, often covered with canvas. A series of devastating fires prompted a group of citizens to establish the first volunteer fire department in the western United States. On February 5, 1850, the beginnings of the Sacramento Fire Department began to take shape with the formation of Mutual Hook and Ladder No. 1.

The City's waterfront location made it highly vulnerable to flooding. After two seasons of severe flooding, an ambitious project was proposed to raise the entire downtown.

A third devastating flood made this proposal a reality, and thousands of cubic yards of dirt were brought in by wagon to raise the whole City one story. The original street levels can still be seen under the boardwalk and allies and in some basements throughout Old Sacramento.

Black and white photo of firefighters traveling by horses.

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The California State Legislature officially moved to Sacramento in 1854, and at the 1879 Constitutional Convention, Sacramento was named the permanent State Capital. With its new status and strategic location, the City quickly prospered.

Sacramento became a major distribution and transportation point as the western end of the Pony Express and the First Transcontinental Railroad. On March 30, 1872, after the City formed Engine Companies 1 and 2, the Sacramento Fire Department was established and became the first paid professional fire department west of the Mississippi.

During the late 1800's and early 1900's, significant technological improvements began shaping the City and its fire department. Rub rubber hose replaced the copper-riveted leather hose, and longer extension ladders were made. Horse-drawn carriages were replaced with street cars and automobiles.

Horse-drawn fire apparatus was replaced with steam-operated pumpers, chemical engines, and motorized apparatus. Sacramento Fire Department's first motorized vehicles were placed into service as early as 1912.

The City was a major hub for rail transportation. It was the terminus for the country's north-south, and east-west rail routes. Its railyard was the largest in the nation when Central Pacific merged with Western Pacific, expanding the railyard while employing, at its height, over 7,000 employees - more than the City's 4,000 employees today. The railyard employed almost one-third of all Sacramento workers. The Sacramento Locomotive Works could build or rebuild any car or locomotive from the ground up. It had a wood shop, boiler shop, paint shop, blacksmith shop, and a foundry.

This Foundry is where many of the Sacramento Fire Department's Corey Hydrant wrenches, Ladder Hooks, and G-Hooks (part of the hose belt) had their original castings and origins. With the advent of diesel locomotives and the purchase of Western Pacific by Union Pacific in 1996, the railyard began to shrink in size and prominence in the late 1990's and completely closed, with its last employees shutting the doors in 1999, when Union Pacific ceased operations in the railyard.

black and white photo of six firefighters standing with fire truck in front of a fire station.

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Between the 1920's and 1940's, population of the City continued to grow; however, the City's geographical area remained the same until the end of World War II, when the City began annexing surrounding areas in the county.

At the end of the Great Depression, FDR's New Deal programs funded several projects in and around the City of Sacramento. The Tower Bridge, completed in 1935, was built using WPA money, providing needed jobs and solving transportation problems across the Sacramento River.

At the same time, FDR's New Deal added three water storage facilities to the city water distribution system to increase and modernize the city water system. These multi-million-gallon reservoirs are located at City College, the UC-Davis campus, and Alhambra Reservoir, which shares the property of Station 4. Station 4 was occupied two years before the completion of the Alhambra reservoir. Station 4 first delivered service to City residents in October of 1933, making it 90 years old this year and one of the oldest continually operated stations in the western United States.

Vintage photo of a red Sacramento ambulance that reads "rescue 1"

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In the 1940s, the fire department began dedicating personnel to fire prevention activities. With the enforcement of building and life safety codes, public education in fire safety, and weed abatement regulations, the loss of life and property from fire began to lessen. It was not until the early 1980's when soon-to-be chief Ray Charles professionalized the unit, bringing them under the office of the Fire Marshall and adding the Fire Arson Investigations Unit. Initially, the unit was small, and today, it has grown to nearly 40 full-time professional prevention officers and Arson investigators.

From 1946 through 1965, the City began annexing surrounding county areas, accelerating its growth by more than tripling its size. During this period, the Sacramento Fire Department absorbed the following fire protection districts and fire stations: Colonial Heights (10), Sutterville Heights (11), South Sacramento (12), Riverside (13), American River (14), Gardenland (15), Del Paso/Robla (17), Hagginwood (18, 19), and Florin (60).

The fire department established a Hazardous Material Response Team in 1984 to address specific response protocols when responding to and mitigating hazardous material incidents within the City and on requests for mutual aid.

At the beginning of the Hazardous Materials Response program, there were four teams, three type I HMRTs, located at Truck 5, Truck 7, and Truck 20. There was also one Type I Decontamination Team Engine 19. Today, there are two teams: Citywide Truck 7 and Truck 30. In 2008, funding was cut from the county (during the recession), one team was cut, and another was reassigned elsewhere in the county.

Sacramento Fire station 7 vintage photo of the front of the firehouse with engine and truck and flag flying above.

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The SFD entered into agreements with the Natomas Fire Protection District on August 25, 1984, and the Fruitridge Fire Protection District 1986, respectively, to provide fire protection services. In 1991, the Pacific Fire Protection District also entered into an agreement with the SFD for fire protection services.

In 1992, SFD became the sponsoring agency for California Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Force 7, one of the original 25 FEMA-supported task forces. Today, there are 28 FEMA national task forces in the nation. Task Force 7 has been deployed to many national incidents to support rescue efforts, including the Oklahoma City terrorist bomb attack in 1995, the World Trade Center terrorist attack in 2001, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More recently, the team has responded to The Oso mudslide in April 2014 and the hurricanes in Puerto Rico in 2017. Every year, the Task Force increases its capability to respond and deploy to many large-scale, complex disasters.

The fire department began its Advanced Life Support and Transportation program in 1994, providing paramedic services and ambulance transportation at three stations: 1, 4, and 12. Today, nearly seventy percent of the department's incidents are for emergency medical services. The department is servicing the City with 18 Medic units now in 2023.

In 2005, Station 30 was built and put into service in North Natomas. This station was the first new fire station added in 19 years. In addition, Station 5 was replaced, and Station 20 was relocated. In 2011, Station 43 was put into service, providing fire protection for the community of West Natomas.

After a drought of station replacements in 2020, station 15 was relocated and modernized; in 2022, Station 14 was moved and modernized. Each of these stations was built with the future needs of the community and the firefighters in mind.

In the early 2000's, the department took another step carefully into the future. It decided it had to remove its Gamewell Street box alarm system. This alarm system was the department's third line (tertiary) back up to its now automated Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), with Land Mobil Radio being Secondary.

This decision meant every street corner, park, and fire station would have the pull-box station and pedestal removed. The system had been in service for many years and now would go extinct, as would the horses and steamers. However, the system came to the fire department's aid one last time in 2015. The department needed to add high-speed data lines to all stations for a new station alerting project (WestNet Alerting) but did not have the money to trench from street to stations for over 25 locations. Instead, it would repurpose the conduit used by the Gamewell system one more time.

For more information related to the history of the Sacramento Fire Department, please visit the Pioneer Mutual Hook and Ladder Society's website.

History video documentary

Sacramento Fire Celebrates 150 Years of Service

In 2022, Sacramento Fire Celebrated 150 years as a professional paid department.

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