Operations

Overview
    The Brewster Fire & Rescue Department is a municipal service providing fire protection, emergency medical care and other emergency services for the Town of Brewster. We provide a host of non-emergency services as well, including fire prevention and education and a full range of inspection and permitting services. The department operates out of a headquarters station located on Main Street and also maintains a small unstaffed sub-station at the entrance to Nickerson State Park. The headquarters station is staffed around the clock with between two and five firefighter/EMTs. Most of our career firefighters are paramedics, certified to provide advanced life support care. The department utilizes thirteen assorted pieces of apparatus and vehicles to accomplish it's mission and has an ISO rating of 4. The department consists of a full-time fire chief, on-call deputy chief, a full-time administrative assistant, 12 full-time career firefighters, approximately 30 paid on-call firefighters and EMTs. Emergency dispatch functions for the fire department are handled by the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office (BCSO). The BCSO Communication Center is the 9-1-1 PSAP for the Town of Brewster, and also dispatches all fire and rescue calls for the department. 

Station Manning
    The department has one manned fire station staffed 24 hours a day. Daily shift strength varies between day and night tours and also seasonally. At night (6PM-8AM) two firefighter/EMT-Ps are on duty and during the day tour (8AM-6PM) there are five firefighters on duty (two of which are paramedics). Most of the career firefighter/paramedics work a 24 hour shift schedule (24 hours on duty, followed by 48 hours off duty, followed by 24 hours on duty, followed by four days off). The other career firefighters work shifts during the day from approximately 8AM-6PM. On-call firefighters and EMTs and off duty career firefighters are used to augment the daytime career staff anytime additional manpower is needed to handle emergencies. At night the department operates primarily "on-call" where almost all personnel respond to emergencies from their homes. The various levels of full-time staffing and the use of on-call personnel help to make Brewster Fire Department one of the most cost efficient on Cape Cod while still meeting the needs of the community.

Calling the Fire Department
   Brewster is one of the 351 cities and towns in the State of Massachusetts with enhanced 9-1-1 "E-911" service.  When dialing 9-1-1 in the town of Brewster the call is routed to the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) Communications Center, located in Barnstable Village. The BCSO is the primary 'public safety answering point' (PSAP) for the town. 9-1-1 calls are initially answered by a BCSO public safety dispatcher who will quickly determine if the emergency call requires police, fire or medical response.  If the emergency is fire or medical in nature the BCSO public safety dispatcher will ask the caller for several important pieces of information including the street address or where the emergency is, the call-back phone number and what the emergency is. The dispatcher will always ask for the proper address and phone number to verify the E-911 information and may ask the caller to stay on the line to obtain further information or to provide other instructions. BCSO public safety dispatchers are trained to provide EMD (life saving medical instructions) over the telephone. This includes emergencies such as child birth, cardiac arrest, choking, heart attacks, etc. If the 9-1-1 call is a police emergency then the BCSO dispatcher will transfer the call to the Brewster Police Department where it will be answered and handled by local police dispatchers and officers. When dialing 9-1-1 from a cellular telephone in Brewster, or anywhere in Massachusetts for that matter, all calls are initially answered by Massachusetts State Police dispatchers will then transfer the call to the appropriate agency. Cellular 911 calls do not automatically provide the State Police dispatchers with your address information so they will need to determine your location first before transferring the call to the proper agency.        

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Brewster Fire Department, 1657 Main Street, Brewster, MA 02631 USA
Remember, For Emergencies Always Dial 9-1-1