Operations Overview
The BVFD provides fire protection and EMS to the Town of Bristol, encompassing approximately 36 square miles and a population of about 2,000. We also provide fire protection to small portions of the towns of Canandaigua and South Bristol.
Residents of our protection districts access help via an Enhanced 911 System, which is operated by the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office in Canandaigua. At the 911 Center, calls are received and the appropriate agency or agencies are dispatched. An emergency medical dispatch (EMD) system allows the 911 operators to give pre-arrival instructions to callers; these instructions range from bleeding control to emergency childbirth to CPR.
The 911 Center also has the capability to determine the location of callers using cell phones. GPS information received by the cell phone is relayed to the 911 Center, and this information is plotted on a county mapping system to determine the caller’s exact location. Injured snowmobilers and hunters have been found using this system.
The BVFD is all-volunteer, meaning no paid staff on duty at any time. We are dispatched by the Ontario County 911 Center and respond from our homes, places of employment or wherever we happen to be when a call is dispatched. We are alerted via pagers, although we have home receivers and the fire house siren as back-up systems.
Since most of our response area is without a municipal water system, we carry a total of 5,700 gallons of water on our trucks with which we fight fire. Additional water is provided by mutual aid tankers from surrounding departments.
Our apparatus is housed in two fire stations: Station 1 is located at 4350 Route 64 in Bristol Center; Station 2 is located at 3792 County Road 2 on what is known as Baptist Hill.
We have automatic mutual aid fire agreements with the Cheshire and Richmond Fire Departments. These are 24 hour a day, 365 days of the year agreements to respond to reported structure fires and hazardous material incidents. Cheshire FD will be automatically dispatched to all areas of our response district, while Richmond is automatically dispatched to fires occurring on the western half of the town. In turn, we are automatically dispatched to reported fires in the Cheshire Fire District and the town of Richmond.
The BVFD provides prompt basic life support, first responder (BLS-FR) service to Bristol residents, responding automatically to all EMS calls with Finger Lakes Ambulance.