Excelsior Fire District

The department traces its roots to 1882 as the Excelsior Fire Department, one of the oldest fire departments in Minnesota, growing from horse-drawn wagons and hand-rung bells to a modern combination fire service. In 2002 the department reorganized as the Excelsior Fire District, a joint-powers government unit jointly funded and governed by the five cities it protects, and over the following decade built two new stations and hired its first full-time chief.

Today the district operates from Station #1 in Shorewood and Station #2 in Deephaven with roughly 40 members, responding to approximately 1,200 calls a year. Its apparatus fleet includes a 107-foot ladder truck, two engines/pumpers, a pumper/tanker, heavy and light rescue vehicles, two ATVs, a grass rig, a life-safety/hazmat trailer, and two rescue/fire-suppression boats for water incidents on Lake Minnetonka.

Services span fire suppression, emergency medical response, fire prevention and community-awareness programs, hazardous-materials mitigation, and disaster response. The district maintains mutual-aid relationships with the Chanhassen, Mound, Minnetonka, Long Lake, Victoria, and Wayzata fire departments, and coordinates with the state hazmat team, the 55th Civil Support Group, county emergency management, area schools, the DNR, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army.

Excelsior Fire District recruits both part-time (paid-on-call) firefighters and, occasionally, full-time career staff. Applicants download and submit an employment application and are directed to contact the recruitment contact with questions rather than apply through an online portal.