Department Informaton

The Department currently has approximately 30 dedicated volunteers and 20 full-time paid staff members. We have paid staff on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Orange Rural Fire Department runs about 1800 calls per year. We provide fire, rescue, and first responder (emergency medical care) services to the Orange Rural Fire District as well as for the Town of Hillsborough.

Our district, covering 64 square miles in central Orange county, requires two stations to provide thorough coverage to all areas. Station One is located in downtown Hillsborough at 206 South Churton Street. Station Two is located north of town in the rural district at 835 Phelps Road.

We currently have two Engine-Tanker combinations, one engine, three tankers, one brush truck, one squad truck, one ladder truck, four support vehicles and a Polaris six wheel vehicle with pumping capability.

Our chain of command consists of a volunteer chief, with a paid deputy chief directly supervising the paid staff and a volunteer assistant chief supervising the volunteer members. The paid staff is comprised of three shifts each consisting of a paid captain, two lieutenants, and three firefighters. The volunteers consist of two captains each of whom supervise half the volunteer firefighters. The department also has a volunteer safety officer, and two volunteer first responder support personnel.