Rankin County, Mississippi

Fire Coordinator

Rankin County Fire / Emergency Service is responsible for providing fire suppression, prevention, pre-hospital medical care, and rescue to over 120,000 citizens of the county covering approximately 800 square miles. We have twenty –one departments operating out of thirty-five stations strategically located through out the county. Our first line response vehicles include four aerial devices, over thirty pumpers, fifteen rescue squads, twenty tankers and several special response units (brush rigs).

Rankin County boasts the fact that we have more certified firefighters than any other county in the State. Based on that fact, we enjoy lower insurance ratings. All graded parts of the county are at least an ISO class 8 with three areas being a class 5 and two being a 6.

All units operate under automatic mutual aid response on structure fires or other large events. Over 60% of our firefighters are trained to at least the first responder level with many being certified to the EMT and paramedic level. Other areas of certification include; high angle rescue, confined space rescue, haz-mat technician, fire service instructor, dive rescue, WMD, Smoke Diver, rescue specialist, and extrication.

Public safety and welfare are very high priorities for our local government leaders. Making sure we have the best possible tools and training to perform our job has been a top priority. The oldest first line pumper is a 1994 model. In 2001 Rankin County purchased 40 bi-phasic automatic defibrillators to be placed each of the apparatus.

In 2002-03, two 2000 gallon tankers were added to the fleet, and in 2004-05 several new rescue vehicles and an additional tanker were added.