Looking back at the Rawlins Fire Department History...

In 1886 a group of concerned citizens joined together to officially form the foundation for the Rawlins Fire Department.
Equipped with a horse drawn pumper, little equiptment and donated space in a firefighter's garage they were off and
running, providing fire protection for the community. As the years went by the Fire Department continued to grow in
personnel, equiptment, and the need to move out of the neighbohood garage was very evident. Members also realized the
need for full-time employees to organize and maintain the department.

In 1939 property was dedicated and the first official Fire Station was erected at the corner of 5th and Buffalo. In 1940 the
Fire Department went from all volunteer to a Combination Department, and the first fire fighters were hired by the City of
Rawlins to man the new station. It remained in servie until 1971 when a new station was built at 320 W Walnut. Presently
the site of the first station is the entry way for the Bank of the West drive up window. It was torn down in 1972.

Station 1 was manned 24 hours a day 365 days a year by the staff of 5 employees working 8-hour shifts. The engineers
were responsible for maintaining the facility and equiptment and operating the apparatus during emergencies. In the late
1970's and early 1980's, Rawlins was in an econimic boom along ith the rest of Wyoming. With the influx of business,
people and construction of the New State Penitentiary south of town, the department expanded with the community.

The Response Area for the fire department made it necessary to build another Fire Station to meet the demands of the City.
Station 2, at 501 E State, was built in 1981, and bega serving Rawlins in 1983. To provide manpower for both stations in
a cost effective manner, the paid staff's working hours changed from 8 hours to a 24/48 schedule. This allowed manning of
both stations on a full time basis. Today both stations are still operated with 7 full-time employees working th 24/48
schedule, and a fire chief employed 8 hours, 5 days a week.

Over the course of time the Fire Department operated a full-time ambulance service from 1940 through 1985. This was
given up to Carbon County Hospital because of funding and other conflicts at the time. We currently provide Basic
Emergency care and a heavy rescue service for the entire county. We have several individuals that are HazMat Technician
certified amd are equipped to deal with a wide variety of hazardous situations.

The latest addition to our department is the development of our Training Center located to the west od Staton 2. This
project was first conceived in 1983 and had resided "on the back burner" due to lack of funding. Finally in 1999 the erection
of a 40' drill tower and a two-story burn building were completed. The facility site on approximately 4 acres and is equipped
with a burn building/training tower, confined space training vault/pump test pit, soke house, a 30'x60' storage building,
natural gas props and a marked NFPA 1002 driving course.

Leadership for the department is provided by a full-time Chief. During our evolution, volunteers have served the department,
part-time Chiefs, a Public Safty Director and various other combinations. The Rawlins Fire Department, under the leadership
of the full-time Chiefs, has developed into a professional and progressive department wth state of the art equiptent and
training facilities. We have been able to achieve an ISO rating of 3. We are hoping with each year we will continue to
advance to the forefront of the Fire Fighting community.