If you have a picture of this station, send it in — it
will be credited to you.
The firehouse, built in 1973: ETA 542 (2023 HME Ahrens-Fox, 1,500 gpm, 1,000 gallons), ETA 541 (2001 E-One, 1,250 gpm, 1,250 gallons) and Attack 543. Members meet Tuesdays at 7 pm. Source
Pawlet's volunteers answer fires, crashes, hazardous materials, gas and carbon monoxide calls and wildland fires, assist the Vermont State Police and the Granville Rescue Squad, and train more than 70 hours a year at home. West Pawlet has its own department.
1895
A fire in West Pawlet kills three people and destroys almost all of the downtown; the village has no means of fighting it.
1904
The Crescent Valley Hotel burns. The town buys a horse-drawn, gasoline-powered pump, kept in the shed by the Mill Pond, which still stands.
1950
In the early 1950s young men in town organise the Pawlet Volunteer Fire Department, with a 1947 ex-Army tanker kept in a barn on Route 133.
1967
The department is formally incorporated, and holds its first game supper the next autumn.
1973
Today's firehouse is built, just before the temporary one burns down; the trucks are saved.
1979
The Methodist Church on Route 133 is lost to fire in February despite many departments' work.
1990
In the early 1990s radio pagers replace the fire phones, a ten-phone party line answered by firefighters. Mid-decade, dispatch moves to Washington County, New York, for better radio reach past the Taconics.
1998
An E-One on a Freightliner chassis becomes Pawlet's first brand-new fire truck.
2023
ETA 542, an HME Ahrens-Fox pumper-tanker built for Pawlet, enters service in October.
2025
Members build Attack 543, a small initial-attack and wildland truck, on a Ford F350 chassis.
2026
Under Act 162, signed in June, the Pawlet and West Pawlet departments take over issuing burn permits.
Pawlet in Rutland County. Every fire station in the county is marked —
2 here, 36 in neighbouring towns, which is
who turns out on a mutual aid call.
Boundaries and water from VCGI; fire district lines are not town lines, and
village districts and contracted coverage cross them. A town line runs out into
the lake, so the shoreline here is the water drawn over the boundary, not the
boundary itself.
Working here
No experience needed: the department trains every week and pays for any fire service course a member takes. Not every role is structural firefighting.
18 or over, with a background check
Juniors from 16, training alongside adults but not responding to calls
At least 24 training hours a year, 6 each quarter
A one-month probation, then a vote at the next monthly meeting
Fill in the form, call the station, or drop by on a Tuesday at 7 pm
In an emergency dial 911. These are business lines.
Burning
Vermont requires a Permit to Kindle Fire from the town’s Forest Fire Warden for anything larger than a campfire — except where snow covers the ground at the burn site, or the fire is at least 200 feet from anything that will carry flame. Wardens can suspend burning outright when fire danger is high. Who to ask locally is recorded department by department; where it is blank below, the fire department itself is the place to start.
For residents
Burn permitsRequest online, or call 325-3222 (Pawlet) or 645-0276 (West Pawlet). No permit is needed for a fire pit 36 inches or less.
Pool fillsIn the Pawlet fire district, $30 per 1,000 gallons; call the station a few weeks ahead.
Address markersGreen reflective 911 address signs made by the department for homes and businesses.
Dry hydrantsHave a pond? The department installs dry hydrants with landowners, often at little or no cost.
Home safety visitsFire safety evaluations and free smoke and CO detectors.
Read in October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Not recorded yet
Nothing is written up here for burn permits, call volume, budget.
Not because it does not exist — because nobody has typed it in. If you know this
department, tell us and it goes on the record with its
source named.