The Hampshire Fire Protection District was founded in February of 1931 after a fire destroyed nine buildings in downtown Hampshire. The fire caused around $50,000 in damage back in that time.
In 1961, the department became an official Fire District which allowed for the levying of taxes from residents. In 1962, the first tax funds were received and were used to build a fire station where the current one is today at 202 Washington Avenue.
August 1, 1974, the District began providing emergency medical services. Kathleen Randecker was hired in 1992 as the first full-time Paramedic for the District. In June of 1995, Trevor Herrmann was hired as the first full-time Firefighter / Paramedic.
The station would be staffed from 5 a.m. until 6:20 p.m. on weekdays with personnel on-call during the evenings and on the weekends. Personnel on-call would respond from their home to the station to pick-up the apparatus and respond to the call.
On January 21, 2007, the District began staffing the fire station with four personnel, 24-hours a day. Today, the District continues to staff the fire station 24-hours a day with five personnel on-duty.
On May 23, 2024, the District began staffing our second fire station located at 1449 Gast Road. This station was designed to cover the northern end of our district, decreasing response times to that area by 4-5 minutes.
