Ever vigilant while preparing for the future
The Salem Fire Protection District is located at the intersection of Interstate 57 and US Route 50, Marion County Illinois, 60 miles east of St Louis Missouri and 265 miles south of Chicago, Illinois.
District Facts: The Salem Fire Protection District serves the City of Salem Illinois and the surrounding area. Encompassing 125 square miles in the middle of Marion County. The SFPD is the largest fire district in the county, based on the number of exposures, district population and personnel roster. Salem FPD’s primary responsibility of fire/rescue service encompasses the welfare of its 12,000 residents, 13 miles of interstate, many, many square miles of agribusiness and agricultural activities, not to mention the 16 square miles of oilfield.
ISO Rating: The Salem Fire District has an ISO class 3 for the City of Salem
Personnel: The fire district is staffed by four Chief Officers, a District Fire Marshall, two Captains, six Company Lieutenants, four career Engineers and about thirty firefighters. The four career Engineers are full-time paid positions, the remaining members are “paid-on-call.” Most apparatus and station maintenance duties are managed by the four career Engineers, who work 24 hours on-duty and 48 hours off-duty.
Dispatch: Dispatch duties are handled by Marion County 911/ Salem Police Department. In addition to the Salem Fire District the dispatch center or PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) dispatches four additional fire departments, local EMS, the City of Salem Police Department, serves as the Primary Dispatch Center for MABAS Division 47, and a backup PSAP for the remainder of Marion and Clay Counties.
Facilities: Fire Operations are conducted from the main fire station at 203 S Broadway, Salem. The station is the home of nine pieces of firefighting apparatus and support equipment in addition to being the home for the on duty engineer. The station also has a state of the art training facility used by the district and many different Public Safety Agencies from the area.
The district also has an second unmanned station located at the Omar Squibb Regional Training Facility, on Selmaville Rd Southwest of downtown Salem.
Apparatus: The Fire District apparatus consist of three Engine/Tenders with 2000 gallon tank capacities and pumps ranging from 1250 gpm to 2000 gpm. A 95 foot Aerial Platform, four apparatus used for grass/brush/wild land fires, a Medium Rescue, and a reserve engine. Support vehicles included a pick up used for various duties, hazardous materials operations level response trailer, used as county response and staffed by various Hazmat Operations trained firefighters from the county, a 35 foot, 4000 watt light tower, and a all terrain utility vehicle, capable of serving as a natural cover fire extinguishing vehicle, or as a remote rough terrain victim extraction vehicle.
Training: Firefighting training and safety are of utmost importance to the members of the Salem Fire Protection District. Weekly fire training is conducted throughout the year. The fire District regularly offers Office of the State Fire Marshal (OFSM) Certified Basic Firefighter classes, along with a regular weekly training program. These Certified Basic Firefighter classes are also routinely offered to other department in the area as well.
The fire District also maintains a Regional Training Facility in cooperation with the Illinois Fire Service Institute. The facility includes a multi story training facility that allows for firefighter to train in a simulated fire and smoke environment. The facility also has an oil field fires training facility, a live fire training facility, a pump test and drafting training facility, as well as a large area to accumulate and present motor vehicle rescue simulations.