Since its beginning in 1878, the Tuscaloosa Fire & Rescue Service has grown from one horse-drawn fire engine to 12 stations and more than 200 firefighters serving a metropolitan area of over 105,000 residents.

Today, our department personnel protects life, property and the environment through direct involvement in fire prevention, firefighting, emergency medical care, water rescue, technical rescue, hazardous materials mitigation, disaster response, public education and community service.

All City of Tuscaloosa firefighters are trained to First Responder level in emergency medical response. Almost one-half are basic emergency medical technicians and many of those are paramedics.

  Annually the Tuscaloosa  Fire and 
  Rescue  Department responds to
  an average of 8000 calls for 
  assistance; almost 90% of the calls
  are for emergency medical 
  assistance to the sick and injured.
 

The Insurance Services Office (I.S.O.) has given the Tuscaloosa Fire & Rescue Services Department a Class 3 Rating.