Vernon Fire
Excellence in Protection

"It is our purpose to protect lives, property, and the environment, by providing dedicated and skillful services."

Pushed to excellence by the nature of the community it protects, few places in the world have fire protection like the small city of Vernon. Merely 5.2 square miles in size, Vernon (just 15 miles east of the Los Angeles International Airport) has it's own Class 1 fire department. All fire personnel receive the most advanced fire and rescue training and are provided with state-of the-art equipment and apparatus. Four fire stations ensure that a fire crew is ready to respond within every mile and a half of city property! This strategic location of stations has resulted in a response time of less than three minutes any time life or property is threatened.

The City of Vernon is a very unique city. It is a charter city with a commitment to business that is evident in its motto, "Exclusively Industrial". The city is in fact almost pure industry. While the residential population is very small, there are 1,200 businesses creating a workforce population that swells to 44,000. Such large numbers of people working in factories, warehouses and refineries, often dealing with inherently dangerous equipment, creates some very demanding challenges on rescue personnel.

The Vernon Fire Department has enjoyed tremendous support by city officials and the business community and is allocated the resources required to maintain a highly effective and efficient emergency response system. Because of the highly industrialized nature of Vernon, and the unusual hazards inherent in that environment, a major focus of operations is towards the specialized training of fire department emergency responders. In addition to the normal jobs and tasks of firefighting and emergency medical response, many of the Vernon Firefighters receive the following specialized training:

• Hazardous Materials - Technician & Specialist
• Confined Space Rescue
• Rescue Systems I and II
• Trench Rescue
• Emergency Building Shoring
• Fire Prevention and Investigation
• Emergency Response To Terrorism

The commitment to public service combined with the need to keep pace with the ever accelerating pace of technology has also led to such specialty programs as Vernon Fire's Urban Search and Rescue and Hazardous Materials Teams. Furthermore, the Fire Prevention Program has had such great success that structure fires are at an all time low. Such service has placed the Vernon Fire Department into the top 35 highest rated departments in the United States.