Before the incorporation of the city of Chubbuck in 1949, fire suppression was dealt with through local citizens and the Snake River Mutual Insurance Company.  Eventually, the Roy Getty family donated the land where the Chubbuck Fire Department would be built.  The building was masonry with two bay doors for apparatus and an apartment on the second level.  Carl Hensley was established as both the Fire Chief and Police Chief for the village of Chubbuck and lived in the apartment above the fire station.   Chief Hensley retired in 1969. In 1990, under Chief Cary Campbell the fire department received a bond for a remodel of the fire station, and an 8-bay addition for the required apparatus.

Chubbuck Fire Department’s first engine, a 1950 Ford Truck that carried 500 gallons of water was donated by The Snake River Mutual Fire Insurance Company.  The city purchased its first fire engine in 1966. A panel van used for carrying breathing equipment, fans, and other firefighting gear and equipment.  Another engine was purchased in 1974 that could pump 1,000 gallons-per-minute.  Under Denny Jones, an agreement was reached in 1975 between Chubbuck and Bannock County for Chubbuck Fire Department to provide fire protection to North Bannock County.  Bannock County donated two fire engines to Chubbuck Fire Department to assist with the fire suppression for North Bannock County.  While some county district boundaries have changed over the years, this contract for fire protection is no longer in affect and service for fire protection is now conducted by North Bannock County Fire Department . Our first due engine for Fire and Emergency Medical Services is Engine 1. We also have an additional two city engines, a rescue vehicle, a county engine, a water tender, an aerial truck, three brush trucks, and multiple duty vehicles that are used to carry extra equipment, additional personnel and can be used for on-scene command purposes. 

The fire department was dispatched through a “red line” which was a phone that would ring at some fire department members’ homes.  Whoever answered the phone would then sound the alarm to the other members.  There was a chalk Board outside the station that was used to write the address of the call.  Responding firefighters would drive up to the station, see the address and go to the call with an apparatus if one was there.  Each member had a flashing strobe in their personal vehicle to let others know they were responding.  Eventually, this system was replaced with a pager system, and personnel would respond to the station and leave on an apparatus.  Getting on an engine was a first come first serve basis.  There are tales of many shenanigans that would give one firefighter the advantage over the other to get on the engine.

Today, there is a four-man engine company at the station staffed for 24 hours a day, who is dispatched to emergency scenes by the city of Chubbuck’s dispatchers located inside of the city offices. The department has 14 fulltime personnel.