Baytown Fire Department

The Baytown Fire Department is a municipal career fire department serving the city of Baytown, Texas and the surrounding unincorporated areas. The department was formed from the consolidation of two paid and several volunteer departments in the area when the City of Baytown was formed in 1946. The name of the department was changed to the Baytown Fire and Rescue Services in the 1990s but in 2006 returned to the traditional title Baytown Fire Department.
The department is made up of over 110 classified personnel and a civilian staff of five.
Currently there are six stations, each housing a single fire company; some house specialty vehicles.
In 2007 a bond was passed for the construction of two additional stations. The first of these, Station 6, opened in the northeast section of the city in the Highway 146 corridor in March 2011. The second, Station 7, is planned for the area north of Interstate 10 near Garth Road and the Eastpoint subdivision; it is projected to open in late 2012. Station 6 is the first additional station in the BFD since 1975.
In October of 2009 a replacement for Station 5 was opened on the west side of the city a few blocks from the old station. None of the five companies of the Department are housed in their original stations. The current stations are:
Station 1 at 4723 Garth opened in 1986
Station 2 at 2323 Market opened in 1953
Station 3 at 3311 Massey-Tompkins opened in 1996
Station 4 at 905 East Fayle opened in 1987
Station 5 at 7722 Bayway Drive opened in 2009
Station 6 at 10016 Pinehurst opened in 2011
The department provides fire response, technical and heavy rescue services, EMS first response, and hazardous materials mitigation. The department operates a federally designated hazmat and WMD team that is available to agencies in a multi-county region of East Texas. In 2011 the BFD put in service a federally designated regional collapse rescue team. Both regional teams are provided through the Urban Area Security Initiative of the Department of Homeland Security and are designated for events in areas covering several counties. The BFD also operates a high-angle and confined-space rescue team.
Operations
The department operates with three shifts working a 24-hour-on/48-hour-off schedule. Minimum manning on all fire apparatus is four crew members, including a company officer (lieutenant), an engineer/operator, and at least two firefighters. Each shift is supervised by a battalion chief who is assisted by a lieutenant (Field Incident Technician).
Five engines, one quint/ladder company, and a shift commander vehicle are staffed 24/7. A haz-mat team with two specialty vehicles, collapse rescue team with three specialty vehicles, water rescue boat, and booster (brush fire) engine are cross-staffed when needed.
The department has lost four members in the line of duty: Charles Emory Williamson on July 25, 1955, Captain Henry K. Rowe on October 30, 1975, Nito Guajardo on December 20, 2004, and Gaston Gagne on July 26, 2011.

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