The Wellsboro PA Fire Dept. has built a reputation for innovative firefighting techniques. Dubbed "Firetown U.S.A." by Fire Chief Magazine, this department is considered one of the best small town fire departments in the country!

Our coverage area throws many different twists at us. The PA Grand Canyon is a large part of our first due coverage area. We also serve 6 production factories in our first due coverage. A large volume of our EMS calls are to the four nursing facilities that are in or around our area. We also serve two multi-occupancy high rises for the elderly and disabled. We also assist our local hospital with emergency, routine, and specialized transfers to other specialty facilities. With that, we also assist the many different medical helicopters that come to the area to retrieve patients as well. We assist most of the helicopters at the hospital owned helipad just south of the beautiful Nessmuck Lake. Another great asset to our community is the hydrant system that we have in place, there are 350 hydrants in our first due area. Most of the hydrants are blue top hydrants. We have two red top hydrants in our boro. Most of the hydrants are fed either by a 12 inch main line, or an 8 inch main line.

The Fire department consists of one American LaFrance pumper, one American LaFrance 54 foot Tele-Squirt, two E-One pumpers, one S+S Tanker, one American LaFrance 85 foot Snorkel, one E-One 100 foot straight stick. Our ambulance service consists of four ambulances, three of which are four wheel-drive. The ambulance also owns an American LaFrance walk-in heavy rescue. We also have the only Mass Casualty Trailer in the county. In addition to the fire apparatus, we have two 6x6 ATV’s, two snowmobiles, and a boat. We have also recently retired another 54 foot American LaFrance Tele-Squirt.

As well as serving our community, we will assist our neighboring departments with a wide variety of tasks. We have also just added Rapid Intervention Team (R.I.T.) equipment to our heavy rescue and primary fire attack pumper. We also house a Tioga County HazMat response trailer. The fire department responds to about 400 to 500 calls per year.

The Ambulance Association is comprised of four Horton ambulances with about 50 to 60 members who operate them. We are a full Basic Life Support (BLS) company. Our ambulance is 100% VOLUNTEER!! We are very proud of that fact in this day and age. Our ambulance service can run three to four calls per day on average, which works out to be about 1000 to 1200 calls per year. We also respond to non-emergency calls for lifting assistance. EMS also assists the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital with transporting patients from their facility to other specialty care facilities in other communities. We also provided a great service to the subscribers of our community.

Members of our departments come from many different walks of life. We have Electricians, TV repairmen, mechanics, engineers, salesmen, truck drivers…you name it, we have it. But all of the members are very dedicated to providing the best, most professional and educated service in the area. About 75% of our members are trained EMTs or FRs. Three of our Fire Chiefs are First Responders and the other is an Emergency Medical Technician. We also have 6 hazardous material technicians. Most of our members are trained in some type of rescue as well. Many of our members specialize in a certain area of rescue, such as rope rescue or water rescue or confined space rescue. We also have a Dive Team available 24 hours a day. Fifteen to twenty of our members are trained in Rapid Intervention and Advanced Rapid Intervention. We also have three EMS instructors on our staffing list with four fire and rescue instructors as well.

Not only do we pride ourselves on providing our communities with the best possible Fire, Rescue, and EMS services in our county, but we also pride ourselves on providing the community with fire safety programs, child education materials, demonstrations, and station walk-throughs. Please feel free to stop by our stations located at the intersection of Pearl and Crafton Streets in the lovely downtown Wellsboro.

We have made many accomplishments over the years of our department. We have been mentioned in countless magazine articles. We have been in Fire Chief Magazine time and time again. You can also find our pictures on First Responder s newspaper website.