The Franklin Fire Department is divided into two divisions: Operations and Maintenance, which is the larges and responsible for dispatch, emergency medical services, fire suppression and hazardous materials response. Administration and Support Services is responsible for personnel, budget and finance, training, code compliance and coordinating the Town’s emergency preparedness.
Our Mission
The mission of the Franklin Fire Department is to:
…Have a positive impact in the lives of citizens and visitors of Franklin in their time of crisis by providing compassionate, contemporary, community driven services.
…Safeguard human life from the perils of fire, sudden illness, injury or other emergency medical condition, natural and man-made disasters as well as preserve the environment and property from ensuing destruction.
… Be responsible for a safe, productive and pleasant work environment for our employees, and provide them opportunities to gain new skills and advance their personal career goals.
Operational Objectives
- Initiating advanced life support to patients within 8 minutes of receiving the telephone call at our communications center.
- To access, extricate, treat and transport and transport trauma patients to a level one trauma medical facility within one hour of the occurrence of the injury.
- Interrupt the progression of fires in structures within 8 minutes of open flame ignition.
- To insure response readiness remains greater than 70%.
- Provide safety and survival skills for all school students in grade K through 5 consistent with the Student Awareness Fire Education (SAFE) initiative of the Commonwealth.
- Provide educational opportunities for department members to insure optimal performance and safety.
- To develop and maintain “best practice” to insure personnel and citizen safety.
- Insure fire safety through timely, consistent code compliance services to all external customers.
- Provide all department services in a manner that satisfies the needs of our customers.
Message from the Fire Chief
This year marked a year of continued growth of the department to meet the ever increasing needs of the community. This year saw the leaving of a few employees to pursue different career paths. This included Dispatchers Seth Hagerty and Jeff Quinlan as well as Firefighter Paramedics Ted Flanagan and Andy Joseph. We thank them for their efforts in making the department strong and wish them the best of luck on their future endeavors. Due to the looming budget climate neither Firefighter paramedic position will be replaced. This year also saw the retirement of Virginia “Ginny” McLaughlin. Ginny worked for the Town for more than 20 years working for the DPW and Board of Health and completed her career with the Town in the Fire Department. Her presence in our administrative office will be greatly missed and we wish her health and happiness in her retirement.
This year the department responded to more than 3,400 emergency responses – a decrease of about .4% from last year. This reduction in emergency responses followed the decline in the economy in general and is a typical reaction to downturns in the economy. We thankfully saw a minor reduction (1 less) in fires occurring in occupied buildings.
Additionally, the wet spring and early summer seasons provided a substantial decrease in the number of outside fires normally experienced within the Town In addition to emergency response, the department also continued to expand its fire prevention education activities, providing safety and survival education to the most vulnerable population to fire – our children and seniors. Through the dedicated efforts of SAFE Officer Robert Donovan, the department continued to educate over 100 children per month as well as attend various activities at the Senior Center. Firefighters Tom Carlucci and Keith Darling provide dedicated assistance in completing this important service to our citizens.
The department has also continued to develop our system of regular continuing education for fire-rescue services. Under the Direction of Captain Jim Klich, department members complete a total of over 1,000 hours of continuing fire education as well as over 1,200 hours of emergency medical service training. These regular ongoing classes are augmented by various specialty training attended by members.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the members of the Fire Department and their families for their dedicated efforts in serving the citizens of Franklin. The past several years have been challenging due to the decreasing amount of resources available to provide an increasing demand for services. Throughout this time, department members have continued to strive to provide the best services possible. We should all be proud of their efforts and grateful for such a dedicated and skilled workforce.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gary B. McCarraher, Fire Chief
From the 2009 Town of Franklin Annual Report. This is available in a printed version at the Municipal Building or
online at the Town website here.
For additional detail on the Fire Dept, check out
their reports found here
For additional information on each fire station and the
equipment operating from there, check this link
For answers to the
"Frequently Asked Questions" check this link.
