About Us
History
The West Barnstable Fire District was established on July 12, 1949.
It is one of the five independent fire districts within the Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod.
The West Barnstable Fire Department protects an area of approximately 13.5 square miles with a year round population of approximately 3,500 citizens. It also protects the Cape Cod Community College Campus with a student population of 6000.
WBFD operates 9 pieces of apparatus from one fire station. Apparatus includes (1) Engine, (1) Engine-Tanker, (1) Tanker, (1) Aerial Quint , (1) Forestry Patrol, (1) Squad Truck, (1) Command Vehicle and (1) Ambulance.
The department is headed by Fire Chief Joseph V. Maruca & Deputy Chief David Paananen. There is one career day firefighter 4 days a week and four career Firefighter/Paramedics that work a 24-hour rotating shift schedule. The department has 5 part time Firefighter/EMTs and 40 call/volunteer firefighters, many of whom are EMTs.
WBFD responds to approximately 670 Fire & EMS incidents annually. Communications are on 33.04 Mhz and the Barnstable County / State Police 800 Mhz trunked radio system.
Chief's Annual Report
The fire chief posts annual reports of fire department operations at the end of each year. Access our library of annual reports.
Photo Gallery
ISO Rating - Class 2/3
WBFD - Class 2/3 as of 9/15/2022
The Insurance Services Office (ISO) is an independent insurance organization that evaluates the effectiveness of each community’s fire department. Each fire department is given an ISO Rating of between 1 and 10. A Class 1 rating is the best and a Class 10 rating means no effective fire protection. Insurance companies use the ISO rating, among other factors, to determine the homeowner insurance rates and commercial fire insurance rates for a community. The ISO rates about 30,000 fire departments in the USA.
The ISO inspects and audits each fire department to determine the ISO rating. The ISO rating is based upon how well a fire department is trained, how well equipped it is, how well its dispatch center operates, how many firefighters and trucks it turns out to a first alarm fire, how well it tests and maintains its equipment and how much water is available for firefighting.
The West Barnstable Fire Department’s ISO Rating is Class 2 when it is operating within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant (or approved alternate water source), and it is a Class 3 when operating in an area without fire hydrants. The only reason the department’s ISO rating drops from a 2 to a 3 in the non-hydrant areas is the lack of water for firefighting.
Of the 380 fire departments in Massachusetts, the West Barnstable Fire Department’s ISO rating of 2 (within the hydrant district) places it among the top 17 fire departments in the state. West Barnstable is among the top 810 fire departments in the USA, which is the top 3% of all departments in the nation.
The West Barnstable Fire Department is committed to improving its ISO Rating in both the hydrant and non-hydrant parts of our village.