Department profile

Career (Paid)EMS Provider

Chattanooga Fire Department

Chattanooga, TN · Hamilton County. Chattanooga Fire Department is a Career (Paid) department, 17 stations and 400 total personnel. The department also provides EMS services. According to the HIFLD fire-station federal registry (as of 2026-09), full equipment, coverage, and staffing data are below.

400
Total personnel
17
Stations
Not reported
Fire trucks
Yes
EMS service

The verdict

Chattanooga Fire Department pairs top-1% national personnel with a headcount more than double the Tennessee average.

Top 1%
national personnel size
+1567%
vs. Tennessee average
17
stations
$1,612,756
FEMA AFG/SAFER awards on record

National percentile ranks this department's personnel headcount against every listable U.S. department with reported staffing; the state comparison uses the same personnel figure against its own state's average. Both feed the verdict sentence and the chips above.

C
PlainFireData Composite Score
50/100
Chattanooga Fire Department

A staffing, equipment, EMS-integration, and federal-grant-funding composite benchmarked against every other USFA-registered department nationally, not a safety rating, response-time measure, or comparison of fire risk. Dimensions with no data on file are excluded and their weight redistributed, never counted as zero.

Staffing capacity C
23.5 personnel per station (national median 23.5)
Equipment readiness
No vehicle count on file for this department
EMS integration
No EMS staffing breakdown on file
Federal investment
No FEMA AFG grant award on file for this department
400 personnel · 17 stations

Chattanooga Fire Department is a Career (Paid) department serving Chattanooga, TN (Hamilton County), with 17 stations and 400 total personnel. According to HIFLD fire-station registry fields; among listable U.S. departments with reported personnel it ranks #72 of 22,440. Cumulative FEMA AFG/SAFER awards on record: $1,612,756.

  • National personnel rank #72 of 22,440
  • TN personnel rank #3 of 534
  • 4.25 stations per 100 personnel
  • EMS provider (HIFLD)
  • 20 other listed departments in Hamilton County

Chattanooga Fire Department vs. the national personnel distribution

Where this department's HIFLD-reported staffing sits among every listable U.S. fire department

400 Top 1% higher than 99%+ of 22,440 departments

Listable U.S. fire departments, banded by total personnel

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more departments. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source HIFLD fire-station registry · 2026-09-06

Dispatch plate

Sheet 33512 · Chattanooga Fire Department, TN 400 personnel · 17 stations

PERS-LARGE · STA-MULTI · TYPE-CAREER · EMS-Y · RANK-TOP · PHOTO-FINISH · FEMA-MID · BOOK-FULL

  • PERS-LARGE 400
  • STA-MULTI 17 stations
  • TYPE-CAREER Career
  • EMS-Y EMS on file
  • RANK-TOP #72
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Middletown Townsh…
  • FEMA-MID $1.6M
  • BOOK-FULL 5/5 fields

Nearest personnel peer: Middletown Township Fire Department, NJ (+ 0 personnel)

Career/paid HIFLD roster counts, station rows, EMS flag, listable personnel rank, photo-finish peer, and FEMA AFG/SAFER book for this FDID, not a readiness rating.

Personnel neighbourhood

Nationwide HIFLD headcount poles and nearest peers, not a reprint of every TN department.

Department Profile

Type
CAREER
Location
Chattanooga, TN
FDID
33512

FEMA Grant History

$0
Cumulative funding (FY2017–2022)
0
Awards
Year Award Amount
2022 EMW-2022-FG-04188 $126,409.09
2017 EMW2015FH00483 $1,486,347

Source: USAspending.gov (CFDA 97.044 AFG / 97.083 SAFER)

Staffing vs the Tennessee average

How Chattanooga Fire Department's personnel count compares to the typical department in Tennessee. In-state it ranks #3 of 534 by personnel among listable departments with reported staffing. Nationally it ranks #72 of 22,440 on the same basis as the largest-departments ranking.

▲ 1567% above the state average
Stations
17
State fire deaths/yr
115
TN departments
921

County roster weight

Chattanooga Fire Department carries 47.3% of Hamilton County HIFLD personnel

Among 25 listed departments (845 personnel), this FDID is the plurality weight, while volunteer departments are 32% of the county count. County / state rollup.

4.25 stations per 100 HIFLD personnel (17 stations / 400 roster).

Photo-finish peer: Middletown Township Fire Department, NJ (+0 personnel).

Nationwide career peers near 400 personnel

Photo-finish and same-type HIFLD neighbours for this FDID, not a reprint of every TN department.