If you want to understand what Greensboro firefighters actually do in a year, the numbers tell the story pretty well.
In fiscal 2024–2025, the Greensboro Fire Department responded to 41,313 incidents, saved more than $221 million in property and answered nearly 25,000 medical calls. Firefighters also tested more than 15,000 fire hydrants, educated over 25,000 children and installed hundreds of smoke alarms across the city.
Those numbers come from the Greensboro Fire Department’s newly released annual report – which provides a snapshot of a department that’s increasingly busy while also trying to keep up with the growing city.
The report shows that today’s fire department does a heck of a lot more than fight fires.
During the fiscal year, Greensboro firefighters responded to 41,313 total incidents. Of those, 24,813 were medical emergencies. That means just about six out of every ten calls involved medical assistance rather than fires.
Actual fire incidents make up a much smaller share of the workload, though they of course remain among the most dangerous situations firefighters face. The department responded to 1,185 fire incidents, including 393 structure fires.
Compared to the previous fiscal year, fire incidents rose 2.9 percent, structure fires increased 4.04 percent and medical calls increased 0.82 percent.
During the year, fires caused about $7,156,582 in property loss, but firefighters were able to save an estimated $221,921,610 in property.
Greensboro firefighters also continue to play a key role in medical emergencies: During the year, Greensboro firefighters administered 99 CPR attempts, restoring a pulse in 30 cases for a 30.3 percent success rate based on pulse restoration when patients were transferred to EMS care. That figure stands out because the national survival rate for cardiac arrest patients treated by emergency medical services is typically less than 10 percent by the time patients are discharged from hospitals.
Emergency response is only part of the department’s work. Throughout the year, Greensboro firefighters and safety personnel tested 15,199 fire hydrants, investigated 189 fires, and completed 7,612 fire-safety preplans for buildings across the city.
The city’s firefighters also took part in 378 community events, installed 691 smoke alarms and replaced batteries in 577 smoke alarms.
Education efforts reached a large number of young residents as well: 25,470 children got fire safety education during the year.
The report also highlights which parts of Greensboro generate the most emergency calls.
Station 7 on Gatewood Avenue in east Greensboro was the busiest station in the city with 4,612 calls, followed by Station 52 on Meadowood Street in southeast Greensboro with 4,466 calls, and Station 11 on South Elm-Eugene Street in south Greensboro with 4,086 calls.
Other busy stations included Station 4 on Gorrell Street near downtown with 3,803 calls, Station 10 on West Gate City Boulevard in west Greensboro with 3,560 calls, and Station 5 on Westover Terrace in northwest Greensboro with 2,943 calls.
Rounding out the top ten were Station 8 on Coliseum Drive near the Greensboro Coliseum with 2,808 calls, Station 1 on North Church Street just north of downtown with 2,727 calls, Station 14 on Summit Avenue in northeast Greensboro with 2,416 calls, and Station 48 on Vandalia Street in south Greensboro with 1,937 calls.
Altogether, the Greensboro Fire Department currently operates 27 fire stations staffed by 613 personnel, including 588 sworn firefighters and 25 civilian employees.
The department’s fleet includes 25 fire engines, 11 ladder trucks, one heavy rescue vehicle and five battalion chief vehicles – along with specialized response teams such as hazardous materials units, an urban search and rescue team and a swift-water rescue team.
Keeping all that equipment running requires a substantial budget: For the 2024–2025 fiscal year, Greensboro Fire Department operations came out to $77,264,671, which represented an 8.6 percent increase over the previous year.
The increased funding included an additional $4,573,000 for maintenance and equipment replacement, as well as $100,000 for personal protective equipment and uniforms.
The department also added a new “People and Culture” business partner position, bringing total staffing to 613 employees.
While responding to emergencies in Greensboro, the department also took part in disaster response elsewhere in the state.
After Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina on September 27, 2024, Greensboro deployed 61 firefighters and personnel over nearly a month to assist with rescue and recovery operations.
Members of Greensboro’s Urban Search and Rescue team helped locate victims and search devastated areas in the mountains as part of North Carolina Task Force 6.
In addition to search missions, Greensboro personnel provided fire suppression support in Asheville, where they responded to more than 22 emergency calls, including three fully involved structure fires.
Two Greensboro fire inspectors also assisted with building damage inspections and assessments, evaluating 991 structures.
In addition, personnel helped restore communications infrastructure in Mitchell County by establishing dispatch capabilities and coordinating radio communications among multiple emergency agencies.
While dealing with current fires and medical emergencies, the department is also planning for Greensboro’s future growth.
According to the report, Greensboro’s population is approaching 298,500 residents, with a median age of 34, a median household income of $58,884, and a poverty rate of 16.7 percent.
Fire officials say those factors – along with continued annexations and development – affect where fires are most likely to occur and how the department must deploy resources.
The department reports that the highest fire-risk territories are those served by Stations 52, 7 and 4, especially during the winter months.
Interestingly, the data in the report shows January is the highest-risk month for fires, Saturday is the highest-risk day, and the peak hours for fires are between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
As Greensboro expands, maintaining fast emergency response becomes more challenging. The department’s “standard of cover” requires that the first fire unit – staffed with four firefighters – arrive at a residence within four minutes of travel time 90 percent of the time.
For a moderate structure fire, the department’s goal is to have 17 firefighters on scene within eight minutes 90 percent of the time.
Department officials say that maintaining four firefighters on every apparatus is critical for both safety and effectiveness. According to the report, firefighting operations conducted with five-person crews were 100 percent effective, while four-person crews were 65 percent effective and three-person crews only 38 percent effective.
Looking ahead, the department is already planning for new stations to serve future growth.
The next planned station will be Station 62, which will be built on Short Farm Road as part of the city’s long-range 2040 development plan.
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I’d like to apply for the “People & Culture” job, please. I am a person and I am cultured – so I am perfectly qualified.
I require a big fat salary, Cadillac benefits, and nothing that resembles work.
change your race/sex ! why were you ‘crawling in the mud’ ( & why does this statement need a ? ) are u ‘setting me up’
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As usual, I don’t understand half of your comment Markl, but I bet you’re right that “People & Culture” just means a pretend job for a non-white.
White Men Need Not Apply.
he probably meant you are of the wrong people and culture
ditto
People and Culture is just Human Resources. Orgs over the past couple years have been changing from HR departments to People and Culture departments as HR has a bad rap. Same thing, just new name.
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Disingenuous dissembling, like “Affirmative Action” which really meant racial discrimination that favours non-whites.
The Left habitually twists language. They’re now getting so “up in their own business” that no normal person even understands what they’re talking about. So we need translators to know that “People & Culture” just means the Personnel Dept.
When you have to distort honest English so grotesquely you should realise that you’re just in the wrong, just wrong.
I have always been impressed by the number of volunteer fire fighters. Of the 588 sworn fire fighters how many are salary based versus volunteer? Or is volunteer on top of the 588?
Chris I think you may be a bit confused. The City doesn’t have volunteer firefighters, I’m pretty sure that’s a county thing
I didn’t know that…..I have lived in the county so long it never occurred to me that they city didn’t use volunteers.
I truly appreciate all of our first responders including our firefighters. These dedicated men and women are an absolute necessary and integral part of our society. Without them we would be in dire straits. My hat is off to all of them.
What in the heck is a “People and Culture” business partner position? What a waste of taxpayer money. The Greensboro Fire Department has worked quite well without this position. Is this a DEI hire? With any new position the question is always value added. What value does a “People and Culture” business partner position add to the Fire Department? Taxpayers would like to know.
ditto, termlimits
People and Culture is just Human Resources. Orgs over the past couple years have been changing from HR departments to People and Culture departments as HR has a bad rap. Same thing, just new name.
Back in the day HR was called the Personnel Department. It did not take a genius to figure out that if a person was looking for a job, this is where you may find one. You would present yourself, maybe looking spiffy, maybe take a simply test to determine if you could read or perform simple math. If you were lucky, you may be interviewed the same day and be offered the position. Simple, straightforward, and an understood process. Enter the 1980s and discrimination cases that big businesses were too quick to settle without proof that discrimination occurred (think Coke,) all manner of EEOC complaints filed that wasted corporate time and money, and Blacks through the likes of NAACP making loud noises that hiring practices were discriminatory, enter HR.
To assure Blacks that hiring practices were not discriminatory, HR was filled with Blacks to keep an eye on what went on in HR. Now, apparently still not satisfied, according to John, HR is now People and Culture. So, the question comes up, why culture? This opens the door for the discriminatory boogeyman that resulted in Personnel becoming HR, and HR becoming People and Culture. Only now rather than Black or White, it is the Culture question. So now a White person not only has to be concerned about discrimination because of being White, in addition, the worry is Western Culture decent.
I would genuinely like to know how the City of Greensboro’s HR Department or whatever department came up with People and Culture. This you can be sure of, the name change was not original to the City of Greensboro, it was copied from some other woke place. Question, if you were looking for a job and you saw People and Culture Department, would you think it to be the place to apply for a job? To be understood, names have to be simple and must convey the meaning without research. People and Culture is a dud.
they need more firefighters and less bureaucratic bullcrap! we dont need any more dei programs or pr departments. there are fires out there that need fighting and money out there to be saved! keep it up brave men.
I looked up what the purpose of the People and Culture role (versus making assumptions and ranting about it)….
Turns out it is basically an HR role that handles the HR tasks unique to the fire and rescue services. Most other city functions have a centralized HR but there are aspects of Fire Dept that are rather unique and most departments in the state have specialized HR support folks who help with Training coordination, recruiting, onbaoarding, staff development and promotion, etc….
Actually seems to make sense if you actually care to look up what the role is about. I learned two things about the fire department today. Cool.
This position adds no value to the Fire Department. Why expand the bureaucracy? The Fire Department has done just fine without this position. If you really want to know about this position, find out the origin of the idea to add this position. It is not the description of the position, which are just words that matter. Bureaucracies just add positions just because they can. No one demands accountability for decisions.
This newly created position was created out of whole cloth along the lines that there were complaints about hiring practices, promotions, favoritism. Rather than conducting a review of the department to determine if there was any validity to the complaints, the bureaucracy, ie. the city, took the easiest way to deal with the bellyaching; they used taxpayer money and created a new position. I further speculate that the person complaining was Black. To bolster my speculation, is the person hired Black?
All large organizations need HR. For one they help staff understand and engage benefits and retirement services. They also help with hiring, promotions, development / training etc…
Are you suggesting the Fire Chief handle those tasks by themselves? Or are these things not important to the department? Seems that the complaints point the fact that this role is needed and is considered important by the fire fighters. Guess you rather the Chief handle all the HR complaints himself? Weird.
But you be you.
theres already one fire chief per station and firefighter certificate to cover training. an hr department is not needed. if firefighters have a problem with eachother they talk to their station chief…just admit you like wasting money
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Bingo ! As Captain Obvious says, this is obviously what Margaret Thatcher used to call “a pretend job”.
so you think it reasonable for a fire chief to worry about benefits administration, retirement questions, hiring, etc… with no support.
We agree to disagree. Best wishes
yes chris i find it perfectly reasonable. in any given station there are not very many firefighters. likely a complaint a month at most. anyone can deal with that. you are inventing problems to throw money at here
Great article Scott. A damn shame we got that woke People and Culture position when those tax dollars could be used for the firefighters and equipment. What would even be better would be to cancel all the woke dei positions plus pet projects for the invited homeless plus the other do nothing projects which buys votes at election time from a particular voting block. All those tax dollars could be used for Fire and Police.
Thank you Greensboro Fire Department for all you do!
couldnt have put it better myself
God bless our firefighters, they do earn their keep. I would like to point out the 8.6 percent increase over the previous year in expenses. I’d be willing to accept a tax increase of the same size.
We cannot pay our first responders enough. I believe halfway through last year firefighters and first responders were told they were picking up a larger part of their healthcare. Something that came out of the blue by the city manager. We could take better care of those people for all the reasons stated in this article. I have family members that our first responders you can’t un see a horrific traffic accident with fatalities.
Per Greensboro 24-25 budget, People & Culture department in greensboro is a $3.8 mil budget expense with $3.2 mil in personnel with 25.8 full time employees. Or $125,334 per year average per employee. Admin is $818,958 cost with 2.8 admistrators. $292,485 per year per person. Even including 30% insurance & taxes that’s $225,000/yr salary
It’s good to be in admin for People & Culture. The rest are grunts with a 6 figure salary.
scotts’ photo of firemen shooting fire out hose reminds me of book ‘Fahrenheit 451’; have ‘things’ changed ?
How brave those firemen are! Keep up the great work.