Welcome to the Official Web Site of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana

     Fire Suppression is the division of IFD that responds to and extinguishes fires.  IFD firefighters respond to more than 50,000 fire run dispatches each year.  While many of those incidents are faulty alarms, false alarms or smoke scares, Indianapolis firefighters routinely respond to and extinguish volatile structural fires every day.

     Fighting structural fires is a complicated and dangerous endeavor that requires rigid team discipline and a high level of coordination among firefighting crews.  The routine response for a typical house fire (residence fire) is two pumpers, two ladder trucks, one battalion chief and one rescue squad – 20 firefighters in all.  Responses to larger structures require an additional five to 80 firefighters. (For a detailed description of how firefighters deal with a typical residence fire, click here.)

     At fire scenes, firefighters encounter multiple hazards like downed power lines, potential structural collapse, toxic atmosphere conditions like carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, as well as the obvious dangers from fire and thick toxic smoke.  Coordinating the activities of 20 to 80 aggressive firefighters in chaotic conditions is an almost inconceivable challenge that the officers and chiefs of the IFD Fire Suppression Division face every day.