Benton Fire District #4, Fire Department

Benton Fire District #4 traces its roots to October 12, 1953, when the Town of Benton organized a volunteer fire department equipped with little more than a pump and tank mounted on a trailer. Volunteers carried the district for more than three decades until the Bossier Parish Police Jury formally created Benton Fire District #4 by ordinance in November 1987, and the district assumed fire protection duties on January 1, 1989 with its first paid daytime firefighter supplementing a volunteer roster.

A $1.5 million bond issue in 1989 funded construction of five two-bay stations and nine engines, and successive property-tax renewals in 1997 and 1998 allowed the district to hire a full-time chief and firefighters and add a ladder truck and rescue unit. Growth continued into the 2010s: Station #2 opened in 2011 with round-the-clock staffing, and Station #3 on Swan Lake Road followed in 2015 alongside the hiring of seven additional firefighters and promotion of three captains.

Today the district runs three full-time shifts, each with six firefighters, three fire captains, and a district chief, operating out of six stations with a fleet of 8 engines, 1 ladder truck, 4 tankers, 3 rescue squads, and 3 grass/brush trucks. The district partners with Bossier Parish EMS for ALS ambulance transport and is dispatched through Bossier Parish 9-1-1, and Fire Chief J.T. Wallace, Jr. has led the department for 25 years after more than 50 years of service in Bossier Parish.