Until 1968 Rutland Town bought its fire protection from the City of Rutland. When the city's price rose sharply, voters chose to form their own department, and sixty men turned out to volunteer.
1967
Selectmen fail to agree a price with the city's aldermen; a special town vote backs a town department. C. John Morse is appointed the first chief, every volunteer takes a 45-hour course, and Pumper 1 arrives from Ward LaFrance on 2 November.
1968
Stations go up on McKinley Avenue and in Center Rutland. The town takes over from the city on 1 October under Chief Richard Spicer, and answers its first official fire eleven days later.
1969
The department joins the Rutland County Mutual Aid Association, then sixteen departments, and answers its first mutual aid call, to a barn fire in Clarendon, on 16 January.
1973
Town firefighters help the city at the Berwick Hotel fire. Cleto DelBianco, an original volunteer who helped design the tankers' quick-dump system, is named Vermont State Fireman of the Year.
2020
Calls for service.
173 calls that year
2021
Training moves outdoors during the pandemic, including at the Pittsford fire academy and on a roof prop built at the stations.
192 calls that year
2022
Calls for service.
189 calls that year
2023
The 1960s McKinley Avenue station is demolished in September to make way for a $5.5 million Public Safety Building approved by voters.
190 calls that year
2024
Calls for service.
186 calls that year
2025
Fire and police move into the new Public Safety Building in February; an open house follows on 17 May. A new air cascade system, paid for largely by local businesses, arrives in September.
194 calls that year
Calls
Medical assists and crashes, cancelled or unfounded calls, and alarm malfunctions make up most of the work.
Calls for service, by year
1732020
1922021
1892022
1902023
1862024
1942025
As the chief reports them in each year's town report.
Calls by type, 2025
Rescue and crashes48
Good intent calls45
False alarms43
Fires17
Hazardous conditions17
Service calls7
Good intent: cancelled en route, nothing found, smoke scares, controlled burns. The incidents listed by type add up to 177 of the 194 the report states.
Rutland Town 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.
Money
The fire budget is small because the firefighters are volunteers: $266,444 proposed for fiscal 2027. Voters are also asked to raise the fire depreciation fund rate from 1.75 to 2 cents per $100 of property value.
Fiscal year 2027, as proposed
Salaries
$75,028
New equipment
$40,000
Vehicle maintenance and equipment
$28,000
Administrative salaries
$24,239
Daytime wage
$20,600
The five largest lines in the fire budget.
Fire budget, total expenses
FY2027, proposed
$266,444
FY2026, budget
$262,538
FY2025, budget
$250,038
FY2025, actual
$222,953
Paid for by property taxes.
Working here
Open to residents of Rutland Town, Rutland City and Mendon. Training night is Wednesday at either station.
Cadet firefighters aged 14 and 15
Junior firefighters aged 16 and 17
Senior firefighters 18 and over
Fill in the short form on the town's page, or stop by on a Wednesday evening
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 permitsCall the chief for a permit; a voicemail or email is not enough. Fires out by dusk, none on Sundays, yard waste and clean wood only.
Fireworks permitsFrom the fire chief; approved displays are listed on the town's page.
Read in October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Not recorded yet
Nothing is written up here for burn permits.
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.