CHESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT

What This Data Tells You About CHESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT

CHESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT operates as a Volunteer department in Chester, within Howard County, and the HIFLD and USFA records give a precise structural picture of its response capacity. The department reports 16 total personnel, 1 station, no truck inventory reported. EMS capability is listed as not provided, which directly affects how medical calls in the service area are routed and how quickly an advanced life support unit can reach a patient. Department type matters because career, volunteer, and combination organizations carry very different response-time profiles and funding sources.

Benchmarking against the state gives this profile context. Iowa has 810 registered fire departments and 16,337 total personnel, averaging roughly 20 staff per department. CHESTER FIRE DEPARTMENT runs 20% below that state average, signalling a leaner crew typical of smaller jurisdictions or heavily volunteer-staffed areas. The state records about 22,700 fires, 39 fire deaths, and 70% volunteer coverage each year, which shapes training, funding priorities, and mutual-aid patterns felt at every department in the state.

No FEMA AFG or SAFER grant awards are recorded against this department's FDID in USAspending data, which is common for smaller or volunteer-heavy organizations that lean on state and local funding instead. Residents, insurers, and mutual-aid partners use these data points to judge whether coverage is adequate for the built environment, whether ISO ratings are defensible, and where future capital investment should flow. All figures on this page come from the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) public dataset, USFA published statistics, and USAspending.gov, and are presented without editing so the underlying federal record remains transparent and verifiable.