Ford County Fire & Ems

Ford County Fire & EMS traces its roots to the Ford County Civil Defense organization formed in August 1963, which took on ambulance and fire response duties as Dodge City and the surrounding countryside grew. Two separate fire districts consolidated in 1971, the county assumed countywide ambulance service in 1974, and the department separated from emergency-management functions in 1978. The current headquarters station at 10996 113 Road opened in August 2002, and in 2004 Ford County was selected to host one of Kansas's regional Hazardous Materials Response teams.

Today the department runs a hybrid model: two full-time-staffed stations plus five volunteer-operated stations serving roughly 1,100 square miles of Ford County and about 55 square miles of northeast Clark County. Full-time and part-time/volunteer crews together field roughly 20 fire apparatus, 7 ambulances, and 2 rescue trucks, and call volume has grown from about 2,500 calls a year in the mid-2000s to over 4,300 in 2022 as EMS demand has climbed.

Beyond day-to-day fire and EMS response, Ford County crews carry regional specialty missions: they staff part of the state's Regional Hazardous Materials Response Team for southwest Kansas, respond to structural collapse and urban search-and-rescue calls as part of Task Force 6, deploy statewide (and into Oklahoma and Colorado) with the Southwest Kansas Wildland Task Force, and maintain certified divers for water rescue and recovery.

Ford County hires Fire & EMS staff through the county's central employment process rather than a stand-alone fire-department application. Openings for career firefighter/EMT and paramedic positions at the two full-time stations, as well as part-time/volunteer roles at the Spearville, Bucklin, Ford, and Kingsdown stations, are posted through the county's online careers portal as they come open.