The Amarillo Fire Department's mission is to protect our community by providing the highest quality of compassionate and professional services.
Honor - A special respect for one another, for our profession, and for those who came before us.
Courage - To act in spite of our fears but with thought to the consequences of such actions
Dedication - The commitment made to our craft and to the public we serve. We will be on continuous watch to respond to those in their hour of need.
Integrity - Exemplifies the strongest of moral character and defines what a firefighter is in the eyes of the public. We must never forget that we are stewards of the public trust.
History of The Amarillo Fire Department
Pre-1900
The Amarillo Fire Department (AFD) found its beginnings on January 27, 1897 when the Amarillo Hook and Ladder Company #1 was organized with a foreman and a group of volunteers. The company’s equipment consisted of a hook and ladder cart pulled by hand, carrying buckets, axes, picks and kerosene lanterns. The alarms to notify company members of a fire were sounded with a borrowed triangle and pistol shots in the air. The first official alarm system, a fire bell, was installed in the back of the courthouse in July of 1897.
1900-1910
Major portions of the business district were destroyed after two major conflagrations in 1900 and 1901, which prompted the city to acquire and reorganize the fire department in 1903. The assets from Hook and Ladder Company #1, which now included a hose cart with 1,000 feet of hose, were officially transferred to the city. Amarillo’s first paid firefighter was hired later that year. He collected $40 a month for working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to care for the newly acquired horse-drawn chemical hose wagon and its team of horses. The fire station was a shoddy tin building for two years. In 1905, the city leased a building to house the department’s apparatus and equipment. When the new city hall was built in 1907, it also housed the library and the first city-owned fire station.
1910-1920
A growing AFD, in 1911, added a second station at 16th and Harrison to house more firefighters and a growing fleet of apparatus. In 1911, the city purchased its first motorized apparatus, a Type 5 American La France combination hose and chemical truck. A Cadillac chassis with a home-built hose bed soon followed, and, by 1914, the city had purchased its first pumping apparatus, an American La France 750-gpm pumper. Another milestone of 1914 was that the organization became a fully-paid department. Five years later, in 1919, Amarillo’s firefighters, began working in a two-platoon system.
1920-1930
Amarillo’s first fire alarm system, a Gamewell, was installed in 1923. The city also built two more fire stations during the 1920s, Fire Station #3 at 610 Georgia Street in 1925 and Fire Station #4 at 311 NE 5th in 1928. Two major milestones for the department occurred in 1929. In May, a spectacular fire occurred in the Elmhurst, a tourist hotel, where five men lost their lives and many more people were injured. It was the largest loss of life in a fire incident in Amarillo’s prior 32-year history. Before the tragedy, Fire Chief H.B. Jones used the hotel as justification to purchase an aerial apparatus in a 20 of 226 letter to the city commission. Amarillo’s first motorized aerial apparatus, an American La France 100-foot aerial tiller truck, was purchased by the end of the year.
1930-1940
The 1930s marked growth in the department. There were 51 firefighters operating out of four fire stations. Five engines, one combination pumper/aerial and a ladder company were in service. On May 7, 1936, the first firefighter line-of-duty death occurred in Amarillo. Firefighter Austin “Hotshot” Williams died when a brick wall collapsed on him while he retreated from the fire at Bishop’s Warehouse. The dollar loss of the fire, which originated next door at the Amarillo Sash and Door Company, totaled approximately $500,000, including $100,000 worth of relief supplies destined for the residents of 30 counties in the Panhandle. Every fire department apparatus in Amarillo responded. In 1938, an E & J Resuscitator device was donated to the fire department to aid in lifesaving efforts. At the close of the decade, the fire department constructed a 5-story frame drill tower for training purposes.
1940-1950
Amarillo firefighters established a pension system in 1941 with the Amarillo Firemen’s Relief and Retirement Fund. In 1944, voters in Amarillo adopted Civil Service for firefighters and police, which implemented the AFD’s current competitive examination process for hiring and promotions. By the mid-1940s, the department had grown to 83 members, working a 72-hour work week. The fleet had grown to nine companies, including a ladder company, responding from five stations. Amarillo’s Fire Station #5 was a one room building in which the fire truck, kitchen, beds and firefighters all shared the same room. By the end of the 1940s, the city had added Fire Station #6 on the south side of the Tri-State Fairgrounds and relocated Station #2 to a new building at 1601 Harrison. A new training facility with a modern, brick tower and adjacent burn structure had also been built.
1950-1960
The Walker’s Convalescent Home fire in December of 1950 surpassed the Elmhurst Hotel fire as the largest single loss of life in a fire incident in Amarillo. The fire erupted at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and, still, ten elderly residents died in their beds. Growth in the city during the 1950s brought growth to the department as well. The AFD grew from approximately 100 personnel to 171 by the end of the decade. Three additional stations were built, including Fire Station #9 in 1958, and which is still in use today. The fire fleet grew to 25 apparatus, including the department’s first medical response unit, a panel truck equipped to respond to life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks and major automobile accidents. 21 of 226
1960-1970
The growth of Amarillo in the 1950s was followed by a downturn in the 1960s. Amarillo Air Force Base began to shut down in the mid-1960s and was completely abandoned by 1969. Fire Station #10 was opened at the Amarillo International Airport and staffed by members of the department in 1968. The airport is still protected by AFD firefighters today.
1970-1980
On June 8, 1973, District Chief David Loar was fatally injured in the line of duty when he fell from an overpass while working at a vehicle accident on Interstate 27. He died four days later, on June 12. The year 1975 marked the only time a significant layoff occurred at the AFD. This was the year the last detachment of B-52 bombers left Amarillo, which had operated out of the airport for seven years after the Air Force Base closed. The crews that protected the airfield were downsized, and several new firefighters were temporarily laid off for six months. In 1976, the AFD began operating as a true first responder agency. Previously, the department only responded to calls for people having a heart attack and vehicle accidents with major injuries.
1980-1990
Amarillo’s third firefighter fatality occurred as the result of a fire at the Badger Apartments in July of 1982. Firefighter Kenneth Caldwell was caught in an arson fire, which unexpectedly flashed through the stairwell he was in. Kenny died on August 16, 1982, almost a month after the fire. On June 7, 1989, a significant fire impacted the area’s cattle industry when the Amarillo Livestock Auction burned. The business was the largest independent livestock auction in the nation, and the fire damages exceed $1 million.
1990-2000
In 1996, the AFD achieved one of its most significant milestones when the department adopted four-person minimum staffing on all frontline fire suppression apparatus. The prior minimum staffing had been two personnel per apparatus. The AFD abandoned the philosophy of using mini-pumpers and shifted those personnel to fire engines and aerial apparatus. This policy also required several promotions to ensure that every crew operated with, at a minimum, an officer, driver and two firefighters. Two significant fires occurred in the mid-1990s. On February 11, 1996, the historic St. Andrews church was a total loss when a fire, which was determined to have been caused by a spotlight turned toward the roof, burned though the sanctuary. The second significant fire occurred on March 18, 1997 at Johnson Filtration, a large commercial building. There was a life lost and $4 million in damages. This fire significantly impacted the department’s policy of replacing out-of-service aerial apparatus with reserve pumpers. The incident commander, asking for more aerial 22 of 226 support, instead kept having pumpers arrive on the scene. The replacement policy was changed, and the department now maintains two reserve aerial apparatus for the three frontline aerials.
2000-2010
In 2004, the AFD purchased and deployed thermal imaging cameras (TICs) for the first time. In April of 2005, the AFD experienced its fourth line-of-duty death. Firefighter Christopher “Brian” Hunton fell from an enclosed cab on an aerial apparatus while responding to a fire incident. Brian’s death sparked the National Fire Service Seatbelt Pledge. On March 13, 2006, the AFD responded to assist with the East Amarillo Complex Fire. This fire in the Texas Panhandle burned over 750,000 acres in a 24-hour period, and it is considered the fastest burning major wildfire ever recorded in the United States. Twelve people, including a volunteer firefighter, lost their lives. The fire was the first of many significant fires that has since occurred in the region during a decade-long drought. During the Christmas season in 2007, a blizzard caused a traffic accident on I-40 that involved more than 120 vehicles. A month later, in January 2008, another ice storm caused an 80-vehicle accident in the same location on the highway. While responding to the second pile-up, Engine-6 left the road and turned upside down in a ditch. The crew, who were all wearing seatbelts, were uninjured and able to initiate victim rescue and treatment. In 2009, the AFD offered the first department-sponsored paramedic class to its members. After the students completed the course, the AFD began providing Advanced Life Support (ALS) medical response for the first time. The initial crews able to perform at the ALS level were Engine-1, stationed in the downtown area, and Engine-10, assigned to the airport fire station.
2010-Present
In January of 2010, the city moved to the Insurance Services Office (ISO) 2 rating. Later in the year, the department opened Fire Station #11, the first non-airport fire station added since Station #9 opened 52 years earlier. The department responded to two wildfires on the outskirts of Amarillo in April of 2011. Twelve homes were lost, one of which was within the city limits. These fires focused the AFD on the need to examine and change the department’s wildland interface firefighting tactics. These fires became the catalyst for forming a specialized Wildland Firefighting Team to combat wildland fires in Amarillo and the Panhandle of Texas. On July 7, 2014, the greatest monetary fire loss in Amarillo occurred at the Town Square Village development. One of the four buildings in the complex, each with shops on the first floor and three floors of apartments above them, caught fire after the wooden framing had just been completed. The fire that raced through the structure caused $20 million in damages. In August of 2018, the Amarillo Fire Department acheived Accredited Agency status through the Commission of Fire Accreditation International (CFAI)-an organization that reviews a fire department’s own self-evaluation of their ability to their job well. AFD became just the 9th fire department in the State of Texas to reach this achievement.
