At 18:33 hours on August 2 Fire Dispatch broadcast that a caller reported someone was in trouble in Red River under the Jimmie Davis Bridge.  The call was first reported to Bossier City 911 and then transferred to Caddo Parish 911.  A few moments later dispatch reported that the location of the incident was changed to Hamel's Park on Fant Parkway which is north of the bridge and that several people were downing.    >> Chief Crawford's Briefing on this event <<   
 >> Sig 51's Jerry Hope's Report <<   >> More Information and Photos on the Red River Tragedy <<

At 08:40 hours on July 31, a very hot day, B-Shift answered an alarm for a house on fire in the 2800 block of Ashton.  Engines 1, 4, 8  - Truck 8 -  Rescue 1 -  Battalion Chief 2 responded.  Battalion Chief 2 was on scene first and reported a working house fire and for the first engine arriving to lay a line.  The occupants of the home had escaped outside, but the home owner did receive burns to the face.  Chief Officers were paged because of the intensity of the fire, and Car 50 was paged from the Fire Prevention Bureau.  Signal 51 members Jerry Hope and Fred McClanahan responded on the report of a working fire.  Sig 51 members are now carrying cool wet towels along with the usual iced bottles of Gatorade and water.   >> More <<

On July 22, 2010 two more SPRINT Cars were placed in service and issued brand new 2010 Ford Expeditions along with SPRINT 9 which went into service earlier in the year using an old spare Battalion Chief's Suburban.  SFD Chief Brian Crawford at a News Conference at the SFD Maintenance Facility presented the news to the public.  His concept for the SPRINT Cars was covered in a    >> KSLA Channel 12 TV Story <<     >> SPRINTs on YouTube <<     >> More <<

At 5:26 AM SFD firehouse speakers opened up with a report of a vacant house on fire two doors down the street from 1100 Portland Ave.  C-Shift was on duty and answered the call with Engines 1, 4, & 8, Truck 8, Rescue 1. and Battalion Chief 2.  Engine 4 was first on the scene and reported flames from the A and B sides and requested that the next engine company lay a supply line to their engine.  At 5:39 AM all firefighters making the internal fire attack were ordered to vacate the house and a defensive attack was initiated.  Two Signal 51 members responded upon the report of a working fire.  Fire Prevention Car 48 responded upon request of the Incident Commander. 
 >> More <<

Who said Signal 51 members that live out of town cannot help out with rehab operations in Shreveport? Well, check out this report from member Karl Brummett who lives in El Dorado, Arkansas: “I'd been out on a roll-over entrapment MVA and hadn't been home long when, while monitoring the SFD and Caddo Fire District’s online scanner feeds on Signal 51’s Web site, the tones went off dispatching SFD & CFD-5 to a reported garage on fire at 306 Sage Hill at 00:57hrs. I sat down to monitor the call and E-19 reports a working structure fire and calls for a supply line. Shortly after that Sig 51 member, Jerry Hope comes on the radio and calls Firecom to inquire about the location of the fire as he couldn't get his GPS to work properly. They kind of got him on it and he cleared off. Now, being the good buff that I am, I already had Google's street scene up so I'd know exactly where they were and what the structure looked like. I called Jerry's cell and was able to talk him to the fire scene post haste.” See, now with our online scanner feeds even out of town members can help with our rehab service.

Retired Captain Deborah Mims was named the first female fire captain for the Shreveport Fire Department. Mims died last week after a lengthy battle with cancer. FUNERAL Services for Captain Mims will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 29, 2010 at New Testament United Pentecostal Church, 4400 Fairy St., Shreveport.  
Capt. Mims paved the way for other women.  Currently the department employs 44 females, roughly 8 percent of its 575 employees, but it all started with her and she did it with a big smile. >> More <<

Shreveport Fire Department units in Battalion 1 were dispatched to the Burger King Restaurant at 1733 Line Avenue Tuesday, May 25 at 11:50 am for smoke coming from the roof. Fire crews arrived on scene at 11:53 am and discovered that a venting system above the broiler in the kitchen was on fire. Crews were able to extinguish the fire very quickly from inside and from the roof area where the system vented. The fire was brought under control at 12:03 pm. >> More <<

Shreveport Fire Dept. 2009 Annual Report.  This report includes the mission statement, information about the fire department's divisions, statistical summary and the total response by company. Engine 9, again answered the most calls with 3561, but Hook & Ladder 8 was the busiest truck co. answering 1032 calls beating Truck 9 for the first time in several years, Rescue 9 was the busiest Rescue with 3033 rolls, Battalion Chief 4 was top BC answering 1285 alarms and Medic 14 was busiest ambulance with 3799 runs.       
Click on HERE to see the report.

The speakers in Shreveport Firehouses opened up with the alert tones at 20:20 hrs and the dispatcher broadcast that a house was on fire at Herndon and Gilbert Ave.  First units on the scene reported heavy fire and smoke conditions.  An interior attack was started.  As Engine 1's crew was making headways fighting the fire the ceiling collapsed on them.  Captain Craig Mulford received 1st and 2nd degree burns and a back injury.  He was taken to LSU Hospital where he was treated and released the next morning.  After the crew was removed from the interior of the house the firefighting became defensive and an exterior attack was initiated.  Fire officials stated that the fire started in several different areas and that the  SFD Fire Prevention Arson Investigators had a possible suspect identified.  The vacant house which was built in the 1920's was a very large 2 story structure with attached servants' quarters and a garage.               >> More << 

At 22:53 hours Signal 51 pagers went off notifying us of a 2 alarm fire at Kings Manor Apartments 1668 David Raines. Three Signal 51 members responded with refreshments and pizza. The first alarm was transmitted at 21:37 hours for this fire. The first unit on the scene reported heavy fire coming from one of the ground floor apartments spreading to adjacent units and apartments above. The fire remains under investigation.            KTAL tv 6 Video of this fire. 

On Friday, January 1, 2010 Sprint 9 (Single Paramedic Rapid Intervention Non-Transport) using a reserve Battalion Chief Car started responding out of Station 9 to medical emergency calls on a trial basis. Fire Chief Brian Crawford says that it will respond with a captain (with paramedic credentials), and a driver from Ladder Truck 9 and a designated firefighter from either Engine 9 or Rescue 9. This will mean that only Truck 9 will be out of service for fire calls, since the engine and rescue will still have minimum staffing. This concept is being used in San Antonio, Texas with much success. This should lead to much savings in wear and tear on engines or ladder companies that now respond to all medical emergencies. And of course, the fuel cost will be significantly lower.                >> More <<

Shreveport Fire Dept. 2008 Annual Report.  This report includes the mission statement,information about the fire department's divisions, statistical summary and the total response by company. Engine 9 answered the most calls - 3578, Hook & Ladder 9 was the busiest truck co. answering 1001 calls, Rescue 9 was the busiest Rescue with 3068 rolls, Battalion Chief 4 was top BC answering 1351 alarms and Medic 14 was busiest ambulance with 3669 runs.       
Click on HERE to see the report.

The Caddo Parish 9-1-1 District has an "Enhanced 9-1-1 System", which provides immediate information containing the caller's name, address, and telephone number.  If you hang up, the Communications Officer  will call back! If the Communications Officer receives a "9-1-1" call and no one is on the phone (either the phone is an "open line" or the caller hangs up), the Communications Officer will attempt to call the telephone number back to determine if there is an emergency.   If no answer is received, the closest available law enforcement agency will be dispatched to investigate the call.  Click HERE or on the thumbnail for more about our 9-1-1 System.       Also, Check out the 9-1-1 video presentation.

About our Site
In our Web site you will find information about the Signal 51 Group, and what it does to support our local fire departments.  There are a lot of photographs of fires, firefighters, buff events, apparatus and a great deal of other stuff for you to observe.  Don't forget to click on any picture to see an enlarged image (not all, but most), and we have a large number of Videos Clips 

In our Site you will find video clips of fires, apparatus responding to emergencies and other fire dept. related video.  Some of the video clips can be streamed while others can be downloaded and viewed later.

Members of the Signal 51 Group want this site to be a great place to visit
This Webpage is paid for by the dues from the members of the Signal 51 Group, and we want it to be really a great fire buff webpage, so if you have any suggestions for improving our site please email us or leave a message in our Guestbook.  If you have any complaints about something not working, please email us so we can fix it.  And We try to keep up with what's happening with the S.F.D. Since we are a fire buff club we will include interesting but unofficial information about the Shreveport Fire Department and other fire departments in our area.

Our Fire Department
From its beginning in 1890 (see Brief History of the S.F.D.), with a great deal of support from the citizens, local government officials, and outstanding leadership the Shreveport Fire Department has done an excellent job in fulfilling its primary responsibility to protect lives and property from fire.  Starting in 1965 the well trained firefighting crews were starting to receive basic life support and CPR training and provided these services when called upon.  So under Chief Dallas W. Greene leadership the firefighters were prepared in 1983 when the S.F.D. began operating the Emergency Medical Service for our city.  At that time local privately owned ambulance companies were discontinuing their services.  Under Chief Bo Roberts leadership the Fire Dept. obtained a Property Insurance Association of Louisiana rating of Class 1 in 1998.    When it became Class 1 it was one of 14 fire departments operating Advance Life Support in the United States that had obtained that ranking.  Click Here to see the Shreveport F.D. Master Plan for the years 2007 to 2011

About Us (Signal 51)
The Signal 51 Group was formed in 1969 by five local Fire Buffs whose mission was to offer support to the Fire Department of the City of Shreveport.  In 2009 we celebrated our 40th year of operation and now have over 12 members.  Our organization is a member of the International Fire Buff Associates, Inc. (IFBA).  The IFBA  has over eighty Fire Buff Groups in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and many other countries that have joined together to share their ideas on promoting the general welfare of the fire services and allied emergency services.