OLD FORTE FIRE DEPARTMENT

What This Data Tells You About OLD FORTE FIRE DEPARTMENT

OLD FORTE FIRE DEPARTMENT operates as a Volunteer department in Ridgeville, within Dorchester County, and the HIFLD and USFA records give a precise structural picture of its response capacity. The department reports 10 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. South Carolina has 689 registered fire departments and 17,475 total personnel, averaging roughly 25 staff per department. OLD FORTE FIRE DEPARTMENT runs 60% below that state average, signalling a leaner crew typical of smaller jurisdictions or heavily volunteer-staffed areas. The state records about 32,100 fires, 75 fire deaths, and 49% 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.