Station 10
Rabbit Creek
Located at the top of Rabbit Creek Road at the entrance to Bear Valley, Fire Station 10 stands centrally located to provide rapid access to the four corners of its area, as well as providing ready assistance to its neighboring stations. Opened in 1980 during the tenure of the late Honorable Mayor George M. Sullivan, the city planners chose to relocate Fire Station 10 from Rabbit Creek and Old Seward Highway to its present location to ensure rapid protection for Anchorage’s growing wildland/urban interface, more timely emergency medical care for the hillside citizenry and a strategic locale for swift wilderness rescue in the sprawling parklands surrounding this majestic backdrop.
Station 10 houses twelve personnel split between three shifts including a Senior Captain, two Captains, six Engineers (vehicle driver/operators) and three firefighters working on a rotating 24-hour shift schedule. Aside from responders, Station 10 also shelters several apparatus to ensure appropriate response to its diverse mission requirements. The primary response platforms include Engine 10 and Tender 10.
Engine 10 responds with a fire officer, an engineer and one firefighter, all of whom are trained to the minimum standard of Basic Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-1). Almost 80% of the calls the Anchorage Fire Department responds to are requests for emergency medical services, and fortunately four of the currently assigned personnel hold a paramedic license while another seven are EMT-2’s or 3’s. Engine 10 has four-wheel drive capabilities and contains 1000 gallons of water for initial fire attack and utilizes tire chains for winter operations to ensure appropriate ability to respond to all requests in its area. Tender 10 is also housed here and primarily delivers 2500 gallons of water for firefighting operations in areas without hydrants, which includes most of the hillside.
In addition to the standard services provided by your fire department, Fire Station 10 specializes in responding to wildfires in the wildland/urban interface as well as wilderness medical and rescue requests. During the dry
summer months, Station 10 staffs Brush 10; a small, four-wheel drive fire engine with portable water pumps and specialized forestry gear to attack wildland fires quickly and efficiently. Another resource provided by Station 10 for wildland responses includes all-terrain vehicles to provide transportation for multiple firefighters and equipment in heavily wooded and hilly topography.
To assist our citizens who enjoy recreating within the parklands that surround the station, Rescue 10 previously provided a platform for summer and winter wilderness rescue. All station 10 personnel 
are formally trained and provide operational and technical expertise in wilderness search and rescue, low, moderate and high-angle rope rescue, avalanche rescue and recovery, swift-water rescue, and wilderness medical care. Unfortunately this service is no longer utilized by the current administration, so be safe out there this summer.
While the number of Station 10’s responses rank in the department’s lower tier, the diverse and specialized response profile of the station’s mission and the operational readiness of its personnel ensure a timely and appropriate answer to all our customers request for service. Feel free to stop by if you have any questions or take a tour of your local fire house.
Latest News for Station 10
Monday, May 10, 2010
Located at the top of Rabbit Creek Road at the entrance to Bear Valley, Fire Station 10 stands centrally located to provide rapid access to the four corners of its area, as well as providing ready assistance to its neighboring stations. Opened in 1980 during the tenure of the late Honorable Mayor George M. Sullivan, the city planners chose to relocate Fire Station 10 from Rabbit Creek and Old Seward Highway to its present location to ensure rapid protection for Anchorage’s growing wildland/urban interface, more timely emergency medical care for the hillside citizenry and a strategic locale for swift wilderness rescue in the sprawling parklands surrounding this majestic backdrop.
Station 10 houses twelve personnel split between three shifts including a Senior Captain, two Captains, six Engineers (vehicle driver/operators) and three firefighters working on a rotating 24-hour shift schedule. Aside from responders, Station 10 also shelters several apparatus to ensure appropriate response to its diverse mission requirements. The primary response platforms include Engine 10 and Tender 10.
Engine 10 responds with a fire officer, an engineer and one firefighter, all of whom are trained to the minimum standard of Basic Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-1). Almost 80% of the calls the Anchorage Fire Department responds to are requests for emergency medical services, and fortunately four of the currently assigned personnel hold a paramedic license while another seven are EMT-2’s or 3’s. Engine 10 has four-wheel drive capabilities and contains 1000 gallons of water for initial fire attack and utilizes tire chains for winter operations to ensure appropriate ability to respond to all requests in its area. Tender 10 is also housed here and primarily delivers 2500 gallons of water for firefighting operations in areas without hydrants, which includes most of the hillside.
In addition to the standard services provided by your fire department, Fire Station 10 specializes in responding to wildfires in the wildland/urban interface as well as wilderness medical and rescue requests. During the dry summer months, Station 10 staffs Brush 10; a small, four-wheel drive fire engine with portable water pumps and specialized forestry gear to attack wildland fires quickly and efficiently. Another resource provided by Station 10 for wildland responses includes all-terrain vehicles to provide transportation for multiple firefighters and equipment in heavily wooded and hilly topography.
To assist our citizens who enjoy recreating within the parklands that surround the station, Rescue 10 previously provided a platform for summer and winter wilderness rescue. All station 10 personnel are formally trained and provide operational and technical expertise in wilderness search and rescue, low, moderate and high-angle rope rescue, avalanche rescue and recovery, swift-water rescue, and wilderness medical care. Unfortunately this service is no longer utilized by the current administration, so be safe out there this summer.
While the number of Station 10’s responses rank in the department’s lower tier, the diverse and specialized response profile of the station’s mission and the operational readiness of its personnel ensure a timely and appropriate answer to all our customers request for service. Feel free to stop by if you have any questions or take a tour of your local fire house.
Posted in Community Involvement, Operations
Saturday, February 20, 2010
When you live in a community that’s adopted “Big Wild Life” as its slogan, you expect that people who live in it are going to have an attraction to the outdoors. Some people joke that part of Anchorage’s draw is that it’s close to the “Real Alaska,” but how many cities can boast that their residents can canoe, kayak, and raft in rivers and lakes, scale cliffs, climb mountains, and even kite-surf all within their city limits? And one of the best things about playing in our wild backyard was that the Anchorage Fire Department was available to help out, if our residents had an unfortunate accident. Unfortunately, this may not be the case in the not too distant future…
In an effort to save $150,000 the City has decided to eliminate certain aspects of some special rescue teams that were part of the Anchorage Fire Department. As part of this, there will no longer be a Backcountry Rescue Team to serve Flattop, Hillside trails, McHugh Creek, and Turnagain Arm trails. The Water Rescue Team has been downsized, and will no longer respond to distress calls in Cook Inlet, and depending on staffing, may not respond to calls during the winter months. There is no longer a Swift Water Rescue Team to service Eagle River or any other area rivers and streams. The staffing of the Hazardous Materials Response Team has been decreased, which will decrease response capabilities to incidents within the City, including the Anchorage Port, the Alaska Railroad, or Ted Stevens International Airport.
While the incidents that these teams respond to make up a small percentage of the Anchorage Fire Department’s total call volume, their specialized nature requires full staffing, proper equipment, and fully trained members. Without these specialized teams, both victims and first responders lives are placed at a higher risk.
Here are some recent stories about AFD’s special teams:
Do you see these teams everyday, no, but when they are called upon their rescue services save lives and are needed more than ever:
AFD’s Dive Rescue Team – Numbers Decreased
KTUU Dive Team (Ice) Story – These responder numbers will be decreased
KTUU Dive Team Story – These responder numbers will be decreased
KTUU Inlet Rescue Story – This service will be eliminated
AFD’s Backcountry Rescue Team – Eliminated
KTUU Flattop Story
ADN.com Flattop Story
ADN.com Flattop Story
The 300,000 people who live, work, play, and travel through Anchorage on a daily basis deserve to have a Fire Department capable of providing adequate first response capabilities to all nature of incidents, regardless of where in the City they occur. That’s a big part of our Quality of Life.
You can read more about this within a recent KTVA story…AFD Cuts.
Posted in Public Service Announcement
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Fire Engines carry small hose used to attack fires, large hose used to pump water from a hydrant to another engine, and ground ladders. Typically engines will carry 3-4 personnel. Engines also respond to medical calls, so they carry Advanced Life Support equipment such as cardiac monitors. In an Emergency Medical System like we have here in Anchorage, engines respond with Mobile Intensive Care Units (ambulances) to assist with patient care, or in the event that an ambulance is unable to respond right away, to initiate patient interventions and stabilize the situation until an ambulance can get to the scene. There are 14 fire engines in the Anchorage Fire Service Area, covering just under 1700 square miles.
Mobile Intensive Care Units are more commonly known as ambulances, and are primarily used to provide emergency medical treatment and patient transports to area hospitals. Ambulances typically carry a crew of two firefighters, one of which is a Paramedic, and the other usually an Emergency Medical Technician. There are 8 ambulances spread throughout the Anchorage bowl and Eagle River. Downtown, Airport Heights, Tudor, Spenard, Muldoon, Huffman, Eagle River, and Dimond. These ambulances transported 13,475 patients in 2008 with one ambulance transporting almost 3000 alone.
Ladder trucks are easily recognizable due to the large aerial ladder attached to the top of the truck. Truck companies usually carry 3 personnel and are primarily used on fires to search for and rescue victims, ventilate structures using large fans and saws, and shutting off utilities. Aerial ladders can be used to rescue victims in upper floors of high rise buildings, and nozzles at the end of the ladder can be used to fight fire where hand held nozzles are ineffective. Trucks also respond to vehicle accidents where extrication tools (jaws-of-life) are necessary, industrial accidents, and water problems, and in the event that no fire engines or ambulances are near, will go to medical calls. Presently there are 5 truck companies operating in the Anchorage Fire Department. They’re located in Eagle River, Downtown, Airport Heights, Spenard, and Dimond.
Water tenders are staffed with a single operator, and carry 2,500 gallons of water to support fire attacks in un-hydranted areas such as Stuckagain Heights, Eagle River, or the Hillside. During extended fire operations in un-hydranted areas, all 5 AFD tenders may be used, as several may be coming back and forth from the incident scene to a water source, while the remainder of the AFD’s water tenders will be actually supplying water to engines and trucks actively fighting the fire.
Battalion Chiefs respond to incidents in suburbans. There are two types of Battalion Chiefs on the Anchorage Fire Department; Fire Battalion Chiefs, and Chief Medical Officers (CMO). These individuals are typically the most senior ranking officials on calls, and will often be in command of major incidents such as structure fires and cardiac arrests. On most days, there are three Fire BC’s and one CMO on duty at a time.
All Line Operations employees of the Anchorage Fire Department are cross-trained in fire suppression and emergency medical response, so medical incidents require the dispatch of one fire engine and one ambulance. Fore more serious calls such as cardiac arrest, the CMO will accompany the initial units to facilitate any needs and notify the receiving hospital of the situation. The majority of structure fires require three fire engines, one truck company, one ambulance, two Fire BCs, and the CMO. Of course, every call is dynamic in nature, and may require more or less resources.
Posted in Operations
summer months, Station 10 staffs Brush 10; a small, four-wheel drive fire engine with portable water pumps and specialized forestry gear to attack wildland fires quickly and efficiently. Another resource provided by Station 10 for wildland responses includes all-terrain vehicles to provide transportation for multiple firefighters and equipment in heavily wooded and hilly topography. 
are formally trained and provide operational and technical expertise in wilderness search and rescue, low, moderate and high-angle rope rescue, avalanche rescue and recovery, swift-water rescue, and wilderness medical care. Unfortunately this service is no longer utilized by the current administration, so be safe out there this summer. 
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