Massachusetts Fire Department Personnel

Personnel (fire department membership) numbers vary by region, by state and even by county. Recruiting is critical to fire department success, see National Volunteer Fire Council’s Make Me a Firefighter and National Volunteer Fire Council’s Recruiting Resources. Check out how your department’s numbers compare to those around you, to see how your recruitment and retention investments are fairing.

This information is based solely upon fire departments that have registered with the National Fire Service Registry. If you have not registered your fire department, please do so, it is free and contributes to a complete picture of the fire services. Check out some Quick Facts from the registry.

Department Type

NOTE: In the USFA National Fire Service Registry data for Massachusetts there are 17 departments NOT classified, and so NOT included in these statistics. Departments should register as Career, Mostly Career, Volunteer or Mostly Volunteer but we do not have it for these 17 departments .

Volunteer Departments of Massachusetts

Here are the average numbers of volunteer firefighters for each county within Massachusetts, as well as the maximum and minimum numbers for that county.

County	# Volunteer Departments	Average Firefighters	Highest #	Lowest #
Barnstable	5	39	66	15
Berkshire	29	25	53	6
Bristol	9	47	75	37
Dukes	7	31	47	8
Essex	14	38	55	25
Franklin	27	20	40	10
Hampden	13	27	44	9
Hampshire	18	32	103	12
Middlesex	14	39	52	21
Norfolk	4	32	39	27
Plymouth	9	50	85	26
Worcester	42	33	57	14

Career Departments of Massachusetts

Here are the average numbers of career firefighters for each county within Massachusetts, as well as the maximum and minimum numbers for that county.

County	# Career Departments	Average Firefighters	Highest #	Lowest #
Barnstable	15	47	90	18
Berkshire	2	57	88	26
Bristol	13	76	223	31
Essex	19	68	183	13
Franklin	2	37	51	22
Hampden	12	81	278	25
Hampshire	2	49	68	29
Middlesex	42	74	278	23
Nantucket	1	38	–	–
Norfolk	23	61	188	22
Plymouth	19	51	205	25
Suffolk	5	364	1500	34
Worcester	17	64	401	15

Department Types of Massachusetts

Here are the department types by county for volunteer and career agencies in for Massachusetts.

Looking for NFIRS FDIDs?

Here are the fire department identifiers (FDIDs) for agencies within Massachusetts. NFIRS FDIDs are required for submitting NFIRS reports with mutual aid or automatic aid with those departments.

Need more NFIRS help?

Here are some useful ressources to learn more about NFIRS.

NFIRS Codes Cheat Sheet – NFIRS Coding – NFIRS Examples – FDIDs – POCs – NFIRS Transactions – NFIRS Modules – NFIRS Elements – NFIRS Rules – NFIRS Reference – NFIRS Compliant ?

You can also read this NFIRS 5.0 Complete Reference Guide, and NFIRS 5.0 Design documentation in order to have a deeper understanding of NFIRS 5.0. Here are also NFIRS 5.0 Forms ready for you to download and use.

We are here to help, Feel free to contact us if you need any additionnal informations.