Seymour Volunteer Fire Department

Dedicated to a better, safer community.

In 1971 the business owners in the small community named Seymour decided they needed fire protection for their homes and business. They formed the Seymour Volunteer Fire Department Inc. and purchased a new Boardman Class A fire Engine. The first year the department responded to a dozen calls with twelve members. By 1981 the department had grown to thirty-five members and had purchased a 4-wheel drive mini-pumper and three tankers. Station One (headquarters) was complete and the department was responding to approximately 250 calls per year. Ten years later, in 1991, the department had added two additional stations and purchased three additional engines and was responding to approximately 800 calls.

Thirty-three years later (2004) we now operate six stations with sixteen vehicles and sixty firefighters. We are still an all volunteer department and now provide vehicle rescue and emergency medical “First Responder” services. Seymour Volunteer Fire Department was one of the first volunteer fire departments in Tennessee to become a state licensed First Responder agency. With a grant from the University of Tennessee Medical Center, we trained our first 15 responder’s fourteen years ago. Since that time the Baptist Hospital has donated four automatic external defibrillator’s (AED), the Robert F. Thomas Foundation donated a fifth AED, and last year the Baptist Hospital provided a $5000 dollar matching fund grant to purchase the first AutoPulse, automatic CPR device in the East Tennessee region.

The department serves approximately 14,000 homes (26,000 people), 200 business, 50 churches, 2 private schools, 6 public schools and 1 college (with 400 on-campus residents) spread across three Tennessee counties, Blount, Knox and Sevier. The total response area is approximately 63 square miles. In 2003, we responded to over 1200 calls of which 68% were medical or rescue, 21% were fire, 5% Haz-Mat and 6% service calls. We only charge for non-emergency request such as: to fill swimming pools, wash streets or parking lots and standbys for controlled burns, etc. All emergency services are free of charge, but we ask homeowners to donate 1/10 of 1% of the cost of their home and business to donate 100 to 500 dollars based on the size of their business. Currently 29% of the homes are donating and the average contribution is $38.00 The current budget is approximately $265,000.00 of which 50% comes from annual county grants.

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Last updated:  12/9/2008

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