The Reidsville Fire Department's primary purpose is to fight fires, but that isn't all our firefighters do. They also respond to emergency situations and medical calls. Education is a key role in their duties as they provide fire station tours to school groups, Scouts and other organizations while they can also be found in the schools teaching fire prevention. Education extends to helping citizens know how to correctly install child safety seats in their vehicles. The firefighter's daily duties are very extensive.

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Fire Suppression

Fire suppression remains our primary service for the citizens of Reidsville.  “Fighting fire” as it is called takes an enormous amount of training and specialized equipment in order to save lives and property.  Over the years, our design of structures and the materials used have changed dramatically.  Some of the structure fires on more modern building can create additional challenges for firefighting personnel.  One of our big advantages here in the City of Reidsville is our water system.  With a good hydrant system in place, we can have one of the best firefighting tools used in the fire service - WATER!

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Fire is made up of three (3) major components: 1) A fuel source; 2) the oxygen in the air that we breathe; and 3) heat!  Take any one of these three elements away, and the fire will go out.  Our most useful and abundant resource is water, which takes the heat away and extinguishes the fire. 

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Fortunately through fire prevention programs and increasing fire codes being developed, the numbers of fires have drastically been reduced over the years.

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Emergency Medical/Rescue Services

As the fire service evolved, we realized there was also a need for more medical services to be provided to our citizens.  As a full-time paid department, we maintain a state of readiness at all times.  This allows us to respond quickly to emergency calls.  In 1994, in conjunction with Rockingham County, we started a first responder program to assist our citizens with life threatening medical needs.  As a result, we now require all our personnel to be Emergency Medical Technicians.  Our primary goal is to assist our citizens with their medical needs until Emergency Medical Service (EMS) arrives with their transport unit.  This has become a major asset for the City of Reidsville.

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Inspections

Fire inspections of businesses are an essential part of the Life Safety Fire Prevention Program that the City of Reidsville Fire Department provides to its citizens.  Sometimes we are approached as to why we have to enforce the fire codes established by the State of North Carolina.  The answers are relatively simple and straightforward.  Our goal is to provide as safe of an environment for our citizens as possible in all of the businesses in the City of Reidsville. 

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Inspections are done on a one-year, two-year or three-year basis, depending on the type of business involved.  We have 18 of our personnel certified as North Carolina State Fire Inspectors with either a Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 certification.

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Fire Prevention

The City of Reidsville Fire Department conducts fire prevention and safety programs in all our schools inside the City limits.  While we are able to give a program to any age group, we target the second grade.  We teach fire prevention programs and safety programs each month to our second graders.

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We also have a Smoke Trailer that we use to simulate the children sleeping in bed and being awakened with the sound of a smoke detector that we activate.  To add to the realism, we have a smoke machine that emits non-toxic smoke.  It has proven to be a great learning experience for the children.  We usually operate the Smoke Trailer during National Fire Prevention Week in October of each year and for special events.

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Smoke Detectors

One of the most important life safety devices we can have inside our homes or in any enclosed building is a smoke detector.  These devices can play a tremendous lifesaving role in giving us early warning of a possible fire/smoke situation and allowing us that few minutes of extra time needed to safety exit our homes or businesses to keep from being overcome by smoke and/or fire.

However, a detector is only as good as the battery that is powering the device.  That is why we teach a good rule of thumb at all the schools and with all our fire prevention programs.  “Change the time, change your batteries.”  Twice a year we change our clocks from Eastern Standard Time to Eastern Daylight Time and back.  We try to correlate that time with the same time to change your batteries in all your smoke detectors.  That way your smoke detectors will always have fresh batteries and should operate properly when needed.

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We also provide another service here at the City of Reidsville Fire Department.  For the elderly and/or disabled citizens in our city, we will come out and either replace the battery in your detector or we will install a new detector in your home.  We feel very strongly about everyone having an operating smoke detector. In 2022, Reidsville Firefighters installed 56 new smoke detectors and replaced 36 batteries in existing smoke detectors for residents in Reidsville. 

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Aluminum Can Trailer

In order to save our natural resources, there is a nationwide recommendation to recycle as much as possible.  We at the Reidsville Fire Department provide a trailer on the side of Williams Street at Fire Station No. 1 for anyone to deposit aluminum cans.  Not only are we helping to recycle but we also use the monies collected to donate to the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center and to purchase smoke detectors for our citizens that need detectors in their homes. 

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We would like to take this opportunity to say “Thank You” for your contribution of cans in order that we may contribute back to our community.

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To learn more about any of these programs or classes, contact Fire Station No. 1 at (336) 349-1024.