Chief's Welcome

Fire Chief's Welcome

As Fire Chief, I would like to welcome you to the Gainesville Fire-Rescue website. We are pleased to be able to share an overview of our organization with you. Established in 1885, Gainesville Fire-Rescue has been serving residents and visitors for over 130 years. We provide a broad spectrum of both emergency and non-emergency services to the citizens and visitors of our community. Those services include fire suppression, emergency management, fire prevention, medical first responder, public safety education and technical rescue operations.

We are proud of our Class 2 Insurance Services Office (ISO) PPC rating, which places Gainesville in the top 2% of communities in the nation for fire protection. This is exceptionally prestigious given the size of our city and fire department.

Our personnel are among the finest in the business and are very dedicated to the profession. We respond out of three fire stations with 41 paid personnel. We also provide early severe weather warning with trained and dedicated personnel. We respond mutual aid with eleven volunteer departments in the county. We are very fortunate to have the strong support of both the City Council and the City Manager's office to offer the quality services we provide.

It is our pleasure to serve you and we hope you find our website informative and helpful.

Wayne Twiner, Fire Chief
Gainesville Fire Rescue

Mission Statement:

Gainesville Fire-Rescue exists to protect lives, property, and render aid to citizens and visitors of Gainesville by providing excellent customer service through: Fire suppression and rescue activities, medical first responder services, public safety education, emergency management and fire prevention activities.

Vision Statement:

Gainesville Fire-Rescue will be recognized by its citizens as a department responsive to the community's needs.  We will strive to be role models in the community and leaders in our profession.  We will be accountable to those we serve.