Fire Department

Department Information

The St. James Volunteer Fire Department is an organizational unit of the City of St. James, County of Watonwan, State of Minnesota, that organized in 1895. Currently, the full roster consists of 34 volunteer (paid on-call) members. The department covers the City of St. James and the surrounding rural area for a total fire district of 150 square miles and 6,500 people.

Mission Statement

The objective of this department shall be the protection and preservation of lives and property in the City of St. James and surrounding territory from and during all emergencies.

Fire Trucks

The St. James Fire Department has an array of trucks to help serve the community:

  • Truck No. 1 - 1984 Ladder Towers International (LTI) / Duplex 100-Foot Arial (Telescoping Ladder Platform)
  • Truck No. 2 - 2001 Forstner / Freightliner Engine (1,250 GPM Pump; 1,000-Gallon Tank)
  • Truck No. 3 - 1997 Central States / Freightliner Engine (1,250 GPM Pump; 1,000-Gallon Tank)
  • Truck No. 4 - 2005 Custom / International Engine (1,250 GPM Pump; 1,000-Gallon Tank - Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS))
  • Truck No. 5 - 2009 Custom Rescue Van
  • Truck No. 6 - 1992 F350 Grass Pumper (500 GPM Pump; 250-Gallon Tank)
  • Truck No. 7 - 1999 Chevy Four-Door Grass Pumper (250 GPM Pump; 250-Gallon Tank, with Foam)
  • Truck No. 8 - 1984 Mack Tender (600 GPM Pump; 5,000-Gallon Tank)

Services Provided

Services provided by the department include structural, vehicle, and wildland fire suppression; automobile extrication; and first responder support to the St. James Ambulance Service. Members of the department are also trained in search and rescue, high angle rope rescue, confined space rescue, ice rescue, and have an active scuba dive team. Fire prevention and public education is also a very important part of the department's annual activities.

Volunteer Members

The volunteer members that make up St. James Fire Department work hard to make the department the best that it can be. Last year your St. James firefighters spent over 1,500 combined hours in training. They also spent over 350 hours doing public education and fire safety awareness and over 700 hours working on Fire Department projects. This does not count the 1,200 man-hours spent attending various calls we were paged out to last year.