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What We
Are
The Port Washington Fire
Department is a not for profit private corporation providing
contractual public safety services to the area known as the
Port Washington Fire Protection District. The Port Washington
Fire Protection District is an 11 square mile area on the
Northern Peninsula of Nassau County Long Island that includes:
Who We Are
The Port Washington Fire
Department is one of the largest and busiest volunteer fire
departments in New York State.
As of 2004, we have over 290 active volunteer members. We
average over 2500 calls for help each year.
The Port Washington Fire
Department is one of the most diverse groups you will find
around. Our members comes from different backgrounds including
education, race, age, and sex. We have women and men of all
ages all joining with one common goal: to protect the lives
and properties of our fellow residents.
The majority of our membership
also reside in the Port Washington Fire Protection District.
Our Mission
Our mission is to protect and
preserve the life and property of the residents of our
district. We are committed to doing this through the provision
of quality cost-effective services in the areas of fire
suppression/education, emergency medicine, as well as
disasters and other incidents where loss of life or
destruction of property is threatened.
How
We Are Organized
The Port Washington Fire
Department contracts with the Town of North Hempstead along
with the individual incorporated villages to provide primary
fire and Emergency Medical services. Within the Port
Washington Fire Department there are four separate
companies
each responsible for a different facet of fire or EMS
operation. Each company has its own officers, and operate
independently of each other with regards to matters of
business.
The Port Washington Fire
Department has three Chiefs (Chief of Department, 1st
Assistant Chief, and 2nd Assistant Chief) that are elected,
upon meeting strict candidacy and training/certification
requirements,
every two years by the members of the four companies. The
Chiefs are ultimately responsible for the operations of the
Port Washington Fire Department while an administrative board
of directors, comprised of delegates from each of the four
companies, is ultimately responsible for the fiscal affairs of
the Port Washington Fire Department, Inc.
Our Training, Apparatus and Response
The Port Washington Fire
Department maintains a state-of-the-art fleet of
Fire and EMS
apparatus. Additionally, our firefighters are trained at
the Nassau County Fire Service Academy, which has been
recognized as one of the best Fire training facilities in the
nation. Our EMS providers are trained at a variety of
academies including the Nassau County Fire/Police EMS Academy,
the Nassau EMS Academy (VEEB), and the Center for Emergency
Training at North Shore University Hospital.
Our members are properly
trained and equipped to handle the various situations they may
face during their membership. While every call and situation
is different, the Port Washington Fire Department makes sure
that our members safety comes first.
The Port Washington Fire Department also maintains a number of
firehouses that are strategically placed throughout the
district to ensure adequate response times to all portions.
Does the PWFD Charge for each call?
No. The Port Washington Fire
Department provides its services on a yearly contractual basis
with the local towns and villages. We do not directly bill
residents (or anyone else) for the use of our services. This
applies to both fire and EMS/Ambulance
services.
I need to go to the hospital, but it's not really an
emergency...
A common misconception is that
we provide non-emergency ambulance service, such as taking a
person to the doctors office or hospital for a routine visit
or procedure. Our priority is to provide emergency
ambulance service to the residents of the Port Washington Fire
Protection District, and are unable to provide non-emergency
transports due to call volume and resource utilization. There
are a number of commercial ambulance services in Nassau County
that can provide non-emergency transport and
are covered by most insurance companies and HMO plans.
Do I
just dial 911 for help?
Contrary to the belief of many,
911 in Nassau County does not handle Fire or EMS calls for the
entire county. The Nassau County Fire Communications (FireCom)
center in Mineola dispatches Fire and EMS calls for the vast
majority of Nassau County's 71 Fire Departments. The Port
Washington Fire Department is one of these departments.
FireCom and the Port Washington Fire Department have an
excellent working relationship to ensure that the residents of
our district are provided with timely and accurate dispatch
and response.
Dialing 911 will get the Port Washington Fire
Department to respond, however, there may be delays in getting
the call from 911 to FireCom, and therefore, it is recommended
that all residents of the Port Washington Fire Protection
district dial 742-3300 whenever they need to
report a fire or request an emergency
ambulance.
Another common mistake residents make is dialing either the
Port Washington (883-0500) or Sands Point (883-3100) police
departments to report a fire or request an ambulance. This,
like dialing 911, can cause delays in getting trucks or
ambulances to the scene.
The Port Washington Fire Department will gladly supply you
with phone stickers that list the correct numbers to dial in
the event of an emergency. To request a set of stickers, send
email to chief@pwfd.com.
Be sure to include your name and address so we can mail them
to you.
How Does The PWFD Get an Alarm?
As was said earlier, calls for
the Port Washington Fire Department are actually dialed into
Mineola, some 10 miles away. FireCom utilizes a special voice
paging system that transmits calls to individual departments.
Each firehouse has an alerting
system that goes off internally to alert members on premises
of a call. Additionally, members carry pagers that go off when
there is a call. The pager audibly transmits the voice of the
dispatcher, much like a portable walky-talky, except that
these pagers can only receive and not transmit. The dispatcher
indicates the type of call, the location of the call, and what
type of response is needed (i.e., just an ambulance or
multiple trucks). Once alerted, members respond to the various
firehouses in
the district to man the apparatus and respond. At the same
time, the Chiefs will respond directly to the scene in the
Chiefs vehicles.
How Does Utilize Modern Technology?
The Port Washington Fire
Department has led the way with groundbreaking technology
initiaitves within the volunteer fire service on Long
Island. Port Washington was the first fire department
to receive real-time data from the Nassau County Fire
Communications Center via a robust network developed by
professionals within the PWFD in conjunction with Alpine
Software, the leader is Fire Department management tools.
How Does Someone Become a Member?
See our
"Help Us Help You"
page for an extensive explanation.
I still have questions!
If you have any questions about
the Port Washington Fire Department or the services we
provide, please contact our business office at (516) 883-2200
or send email to info@pwfd.com for general questions, or to
ems@pwfd.com for questions
about Ambulance and Emergency Medical Services from the Port
Washington Fire Department.
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