The Seattle Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. The department is responsible for an area of 142.5 square miles (369 km2), including 193 miles (311 km) of waterfront, with a population of 713,700. There is a total of 1,065 employees with 981 uniformed personnel and 84 civilian employees.[2]
History
The Seattle Fire Department started as a volunteer fire department that was taken over by the City of Seattle on April 11, 1884.[5] On June 6, 1889, the Great Seattle Fire broke out and destroyed over 64 acres (26 ha) of the city. Insurance investigators charged the city with not having adequately trained firefighters to provide protection for the residents.[5] As a result, the Seattle Fire Department was officially established on October 17, 1889, as a paid professional department.
On June 6, 1889, the Great Seattle Fire broke out in a cabinet shop located at the corner of 1st Avenue and Madison Street.[5] The flames spread rapidly and the small volunteer department was unable to slow the fire with the town's small water systems. By the time the fire was extinguished, 64 acres (26 ha) of homes and businesses had been destroyed.[5]
Pang warehouse fire
On January 5, 1995, the Mary Pang's Food Products warehouse burned in the International District. Four firefighters died when the floor of the warehouse collapsed. It was later determined that the fire was set by Martin Pang, the son of the owner. Seattle's Fallen Firefighters Memorial was built to remember the four who perished.[8]
In popular culture
The House on the Hill (1985)
In the 1965 film, The Slender Thread, starring Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft, the Seattle Fire Department dispatch center, as well as the interior of Fire Station # 2 are shown and Aid Unit 2 is seen responding to a report of a suicide attempt.
In 1979, in the Emergency! TV series' movie-of-the-week "Most Deadly Passage", the main characters visit Seattle for a ride-along with Medic One.
In 1985, the department released a cartoon film on fire safety, named The House on the Hill.
The 2018 ABC television series Station 19, a spin-off of the Seattle-set medical drama Grey's Anatomy, is set in the department and is the first ever TV series to feature it.
In G.I. Joe, the Lifeline character is a paramedic with the SFD.
Gallery
Seattle Volunteer Fire Company Engine Number 1 in 1883 at the engine house on Columbia Street in a Theodore Peiser photograph
Seattle firefighters put out a cargo container fire in the Port of Seattle.
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