Department profile

Career (Paid)EMS Provider

Portage Fire Department

Portage, IN · Porter County. Portage Fire Department is a Career (Paid) department, 3 stations and 60 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.

60
Total personnel
3
Stations
Not reported
Fire trucks
Yes
EMS service

The verdict

Portage Fire Department pairs top-quartile national personnel with a headcount more than double the Indiana average.

Top 12%
national personnel size
+161%
vs. Indiana average
3
stations
$987,075
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.

D
PlainFireData Composite Score
38/100
Portage 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 D
20 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
60 personnel · 3 stations

Portage Fire Department is a Career (Paid) department serving Portage, IN (Porter County), with 3 stations and 60 total personnel. According to HIFLD fire-station registry fields; among listable U.S. departments with reported personnel it ranks #2,689 of 22,440. Cumulative FEMA AFG/SAFER awards on record: $987,075.

  • National personnel rank #2,689 of 22,440
  • IN personnel rank #48 of 589
  • 5.00 stations per 100 personnel
  • EMS provider (HIFLD)
  • 19 other listed departments in Porter County

Portage Fire Department vs. the national personnel distribution

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

60 Top 12% higher than 88% 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 64011 · Portage Fire Department, IN 60 personnel · 3 stations

PERS-MID · STA-FEW · TYPE-CAREER · EMS-Y · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · FEMA-MID · BOOK-FULL

  • PERS-MID 60
  • STA-FEW 3 stations
  • TYPE-CAREER Career
  • EMS-Y EMS on file
  • RANK-UPPER #2,689
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Lyons Fire Depart…
  • FEMA-MID $987K
  • BOOK-FULL 5/5 fields

Nearest personnel peer: Lyons Fire Department and Rescue Squad, WI (+ 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 IN department.

Department Profile

Type
CAREER
Location
Portage, IN
FDID
64011

FEMA Grant History

$0
Cumulative funding (FY2015–2021)
0
Awards
Year Award Amount
2021 EMW-2021-FG-02203 $201,192.72
2015 EMW2014FR00328 $785,882

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

Staffing vs the Indiana average

How Portage Fire Department's personnel count compares to the typical department in Indiana. In-state it ranks #48 of 589 by personnel among listable departments with reported staffing. Nationally it ranks #2,689 of 22,440 on the same basis as the largest-departments ranking.

▲ 161% above the state average
Stations
3
State fire deaths/yr
94
IN departments
969

County roster fringe

Portage Fire Department is 9.4% of Porter County roster mass

The county lists 23 departments totaling 640 personnel, so this roster is a small slice; 61% of county departments show EMS coverage. County / state rollup.

5.00 stations per 100 HIFLD personnel (3 stations / 60 roster).

Photo-finish peer: Lyons Fire Department and Rescue Squad, WI (+0 personnel).

Nearby Departments

Beverly Shores Volunteer Fire Department
Michigan City · volunteer
Burns Harbor Fire Department
Burns Harbor · volunteer
Chesterton Fire Department
Chesterton · volunteer
Hebron Fire Department
Hebron · volunteer
Indiana Dunes Lakeshore Fire Management
Chesterton · volunteer
Kouts Volunteer Fire Department
Kouts · volunteer
Mittal Steel Fire Department
Burns Harbor · other
All IN departments →

Nationwide career peers near 60 personnel

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