San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department

San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department traces its roots to three separate agencies: the San Mateo Fire Department, organized in 1889 after a series of destructive fires; the Belmont Fire Department, started as a volunteer company in 1926 and formalized as a district in 1928; and the Foster City Fire Department, created in 1965 ahead of that city's incorporation. The three cities began sharing a single fire chief in stages starting in 2010, and after a viability study recommended full consolidation, the agencies formed a Joint Powers Authority in November 2017. SMC Fire began operating as its own independent department on January 13, 2019 — described by the department as the first new JPA fire agency to launch in California in nearly a decade.

Today SMC Fire operates 9 fire stations across Belmont, Foster City, and San Mateo with roughly 154 personnel, running 10 engine companies and two 100-foot tractor-drawn aerial ladder trucks, plus cross-staffed hazmat, boat/jet ski, and state OES strike-team apparatus. Every firefighter holds State Firefighter II certification and EMT credentials, and each engine company carries a paramedic for advanced life support. The department is governed by a Board of Directors and managed day-to-day through a participatory Fire Action Consensus Team (FACT), and it participates in San Mateo County's automatic-aid mutual aid system.

Beyond emergency response, SMC Fire runs community programs including fire safety education, a holiday toy drive, and a Fire Prevention/Life Safety bureau and Office of Emergency Services that handle inspections, plan review, and disaster preparedness for the three member cities.

SMC Fire hires firefighters through the Fire Candidate Testing Center (FCTC), a shared testing consortium used by more than 170 California fire agencies to build a joint eligibility pool. Candidates test through FCTC rather than applying to SMC Fire directly, and the department draws from FCTC's resulting list when filling firefighter vacancies. Non-sworn and other job openings are posted separately on CalOpps. The department also offers a one-year Fire Cadet Program in partnership with San Mateo Community College's Cooperative Education program for those working toward a firefighting career.