Fire Department Operations

Striving for excellence! This powerful statement says a lot about out career and volunteer firefighters. They work hard each day to improve our organization and that is accomplished through their continuous training in the fire and rescue services that we provide. Improvements in our organization is also evident as they establish and implement new standard operating procedures, purchase new equipment to support our fire and rescue operations, and work "outside the box" to make a positive impact on our community.

While the City of Branson currently has a resident population of 7,700 people, we entertain up to eight million visitors a year. With such a large tourism based population, our firefighters are faced with many challenges. Although we are a relatively small town, we are faced with big city issues. In order to meet those challenges, each firefighter spends an average of 300 - 400 hours per year in training programs to learn new skills or to keep previously learned skills sharp.

Branson firefighters respond to a growing number of emergencies each year with an average response time of 4 minutes. Approximately 70% of our responses are for medical emergencies. While our number of emergency responses continue to grow each year, actual loss in dollars due to fire remain low.

Sincerely,

Charlie Huston
Division Chief, Operations