Bemidji Fire Department

The Bemidji Fire Department protects the City of Bemidji along with the cities of Wilton and Turtle River and 15 surrounding townships in northern Minnesota — a 522-square-mile fire protection area home to approximately 35,000 people. The department answers an average of more than 1,200 emergency calls a year from four fire stations and maintains mutual aid agreements with numerous surrounding communities.

Bemidji Fire is a combination department: a full-time fire chief, a deputy chief, and seven career firefighters — members of IAFF Local 2302 — work alongside four paid-on-call resident firefighters and 50 paid-on-call firefighters. Full-time personnel work 24-hour shifts assigned on a 28-day cycle and remain subject to emergency callback on days off.

Beyond structural fire suppression and basic life support EMS, the department handles vehicle rescue and extrication, water and ice rescue, confined space, rope, trench, and structural collapse rescue, hazardous materials operations, and aircraft rescue firefighting, and it performs fire code inspection and enforcement. The fleet includes a 110-foot Pierce Ascendant platform, five engines, four tenders, four squad units, and water-rescue craft including a hovercraft. Prevention programming includes station tours, a mobile Fire Safety House, and the Students and Firefighters Engage (S.A.F.E.) program.

Hiring runs through the City of Bemidji's GovernmentJobs portal, and the paid-on-call firefighter role is the department's entry point — no prior experience is required, and members who are not already certified can complete the department's Basic Firefighter course, earn IFSAC or ProBoard Firefighter I certification, or obtain a Minnesota State Firefighter License within their first year. Selection follows civil-service-style steps: application review, a written examination, an oral examination before the City Manager, Fire Chief, or their designees, a medical examination, a physical agility test, and a background investigation.

Because paid-on-call members respond from home, candidates must live within an eight-minute drive of one of the four fire stations (as measured by city mapping software) or in the dormitory at Fire Station 1. Full-time firefighters are represented by IAFF Local 2302.