Los Santos Fire Brigade

The first organized Fire Brigade was established in 1899, after the end of the Spanish-American War. They operated an old horse drawn Metropolitan Extra First Class Steam Fire Engine manufactured by the American Steam Fire Engine Company of Seneca Falls, New York. This new apparatus was stationed at 505 Rockford Hills Blvd in Los Santos until it was retired in 1921 and replaced with a 1910 Oldsmobile Fire Engine that was purchased from the State of California. The department during this time saw major changes to its organization and its policies on how it handled and extinguished fires. San Andreas did not see the introduction of the telephone until 1925 with the assistance from the Bell Telephone Company, which greatly shortened the response time of the department.

New Beginnings

In 1931, the Fire Brigade was reorganized as the San Andreas Fire Department and opened two additional departments, Station 2 in Paleto Bay, a small fishing community on the northern end of the island and Station 3 in Murietta Heights. As the city and surrounding county continued to grow so did the department and in 1954, the department opened 2 additional Fire Stations to help with the growing community, Station 4 in South Los Santos serving the quiet community of Davis St, and Station 5 located in the tiny desert town of Sandy Shores.

The Dry Decade

San Andreas saw its worst drought in the 1950s, the fishing industries and textile industries that relied on the rains devastated the island economically. The water shortage was such and issue that the city had to stop supplying ground water and switched to a desalination process for purifying the ocean water. This greatly reduced the Fire Departments ability to effectively fight fires when they started and in 1959, a severe Thunderstorm swept through the island and caused a forest fire in the Vinewood Hills. Due to the extremely dry weather the fire ignited easily and the strong winds caused it to spread rapidly. The Fire Department was unable to manage the fire with the 5 engines it had at its disposal. The State of California was quick to respond by shipping 9 brand new apparatus they were to place in service in the City of Los Angeles, in addition to the equipment, California and Arizona sent 10 teams of Smokejumpers to help with the fighting of the forest fires. It took the 10 teams, 9 new apparatus, 5 older apparatus and the 50 SAFD firefighters 1 week to get the fire under control. Fortunately, there were no fatalities caused by the fires, several homes were damaged and costs estimates place the losses at approximately 1.5 million dollars. After the incident, the Governor of California visited San Andreas and witnessed the destruction of the fire and in a ceremony donated the 9 apparatus to the San Andreas Fire Department and promised to continue helping in any way they could.

Continued Expansion

In 1965, the Fire Department again expanded to now include 8 Fire Stations and 1 Lifeguard Station, with a total of 8 front line engines, 5 ladder trucks, and 1 reserve engine. The addition introduced Station 6 at the newly opened Los Santos International Airport, Station 7 (Lifeguard Station) in Vespucci Beach, Station 8 at Fort Zancudo and Station 9 in the newly formed Grapeseed.

Birth of EMS

In 1968, the need for an organized Ambulance Corps was needed and the Chief at the time went to the Governor and requested additional funding for an additional 100 personnel, 9 ambulances and 1 utility vehicle to develop and implement an Emergency Medical Service for San Andreas. The Governor granted the request, the Fire Department worked with the Pillbox Medical Center to start organizing training and representatives from the United States Department of Transportation arrived and assisted with the training and development of policies to be used by the Fire Department. In 1970, after a year and a half of training and organization the Fire Department receive 9 brand new 1970 Cadillac Ambulances and a 1970 Chevrolet Blazer Utility vehicle. Within the first month of operation, the Fire Department responded to over 100 calls for service. In 1973, the San Andreas Fire Department reorganized the Fire and EMS personnel into two Divisions.

Aviation Introduced

In 1990, the San Andreas Fire Department purchased its first aviation asset for the transporting patients from the scenes of incidents to hospitals with specialized facilities. The first helicopter was a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger and was designated as Medflight One. In 2021, the department purchased a new helicopter for the Forestry Service, designated Forestry One. This helicopter can carry up to 1,000 gallons of water and disperse it over a large area to extinguish or slow the growth of the fire. In 2022, the department purchased two new SH60 Seahawk helicopters, the first to replace the aging Medflight One and its new designation Angel One and the second as a Search and Rescue helicopter to provide aerial access to hard to reach places in the remote regions on the island, designation SAR One