About PCFD

In 1952, the Placer County Board of Supervisors and the California Division of Forestry first entered into a relationship to leverage both State and County firefighting resources to better protect the unincorporated areas of the County. 70 years later, the Placer County Fire Department has evolved into one of the largest and most complex Fire Departments in the County. Today, the PCFD protects more than 58,000 people over 475 square miles of Placer County from the valley floor to the highest elevations of the Sierra Nevada. The PCFD service area is unique in that it not only varies in geographical diversity, but services rural, suburban, and urban populations across the region. From dense commercial and industrial areas, to a high rise casino and resort complex, to some of the most premier outdoor recreational areas in California, the PCFD is uniquely positioned to execute the highest level of emergency response. The PCFD operates nine engine companies and one truck company from eight career staffed fire stations. In addition to the career staff, reserve volunteer firefighters staff equipment out of an additional nine fire stations. In total, the PCFD responds to over 12,000 calls for service annually. The PCFD protects over $7 billion in assessed value including target hazards such as the Union Pacific Railway, the Kinder Morgan Petroleum line, and the Interstate 80 corridor through the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. PCFD operates a modern and diverse fleet of apparatus and provides both basic and advance life support emergency medical services across our territory. In addition to our fire stations, the PCFD manages and staffs the Placer County Technical Rescue Team, the Placer County Hazardous Material Response Team, and the PCFD Tactical EMS Team through an agreement with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. The PCFD Fire Marshal and Risk Reduction Bureau ensures that all new development and expansion in the county is done in concert with modern and compliant fire service standards. This bureau also ensures that investigations and ordinance compliance is followed and meet state and federal fire safety regulations. PCFD is a signatory member of the Western Placer County Fire Chiefs Association and embraces a regional and closest resource response model. PCFD resources are dispatched out of the Grass Valley Emergency Command Center and leverage the technical advances of Altaris CAD, Mobile Data Terminals and Automatic Vehicle Location to ensure that the closest resources are always dispatched to the scene of an emergency. The PCFD is a growing agency and work seamlessly with Placer County officials to ensure that new developments and expansion into the western portions of the county will have state of the art professional and regionalized fire service and EMS delivery. The PCFD is very proud of their history with Placer County and the longstanding relationship between CAL FIRE and Placer County is a shining example of Professional Cooperative Fire Protection.