Capital City Fire/Rescue (CCFR) provides fire suppression and emergency medical services to the city of Juneau, Alaska, United States.
With service to Juneau, CCFR provides emergency services to the second most populous city in Alaska after Anchorage, and the fourth largest metropolitan area behind Anchorage, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Areas served by CCFR include Douglas Island, Lemon Creek, the Mendenhall Valley, Juneau International Airport, Thane, University of Alaska Southeast and local areas of the Tongass National Forest.
History
The first fire agency in the Juneau area was founded in 1899 as the Juneau Volunteer Fire Department, consisting of a single, hand-powered hose cart. Gradually, as the local population increased and spread further out, other fire companies formed and sprouted up in the area. These included the Douglas Fire Department in 1898, the private fire company at the Treadwell Mine, and the Auke Bay VFD in 1952. In 1992, to better manage emergency services in the community, all of the fire companies in the Juneau area, including Glacier Fire District, Auke Bay Vol. Fire Department, Douglas Vol. Fire Department, and the Juneau Fire Department merged into Capital City Fire/Rescue. This was a full merger, which is why units and personnel, regardless of district, wear the same uniform under the same "chain of command."
The first alarm system consisted of a bell installed on the boardwalk, adjacent to the downtown ship docks. Upgrades to the alarm system began in 1915, and the methods of notifying fire fighters who are off duty that they are needed became more high tech over the years. As of 2016, all CCFR members are issued both a pager and a dispatching application for smartphones.
In 2006, the City and Borough of Juneau purchased a mobile dispatch center, with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. The mobile command center is equipped to provide multiple agencies access to dispatch, while providing office space for emergency personnel who are in command at the site of a major incident.
Current Day
As of 2022, Capital City Fire and Rescue is made up of 56 paid and 65 volunteer firefighters and Emergency Medical Technicians, as well as 9 administrative support staff, who serve over 31,000 residents in the city and borough of Juneau. The Fire Chief Richard Etheridge has led the department since 2010. He is President of the Alaska Fire Chiefs Association and a board member for the Western Fire Chiefs Association. Paid, professional firefighter/paramedics work out of the Downtown and Glacier/Juneau International Airport stations offering fire/rescue, Advanced Life Support-staffed ambulance service, mobile integrative health, sobering center and aircraft crash rescue and firefighting services. Some ALS firefighters are also trained to be able to fly medevac missions via local contract helicopter companies, however, most are handled by outside agencies. Volunteer members, including those enrolled in the department's "live-in" program, respond to calls out of the Douglas Island, Auke Bay and Lynn Canal stations. Due to the complexity of the environment Juneau lies in, the department also offers "Special Teams" which include rope and technical rescue and water/ice rescue teams. Annually, Capital City Fire Rescue offers an "in-house" Alaska State Firefighter I & II academy as well as a state approved EMT class to help train volunteer recruits, held at the agency's Regional Training Center.
911 and emergency dispatching services are handled by the City of Juneau, who also dispatch Juneau Police, U.S. Forest Service and NOAA law enforcement as well as the Alaska State Troopers.