Winter Park Fire Rescue is a full-service, high performance, emergency service agency. Our history of dedicated service dates back to the founding of our community more than 125 years ago. Those northern industrialist who came to central Florida seeking a place to enjoy life, nature, and family worked hard to build a community that was not only beautiful but was protected from the dangers of fire. Most of our founders had moved from northern cities where fire had been a serious threat. Large conflagrations in some of these major cities caused those who settled Winter Park to consider the importance of fire safety for their new city.
On April 15, 1900, a small number of concerned leaders gathered in a shop on Park Avenue to establish a formal fire protection plan for their new city through the purchase and deployment of fire extinguishers. Thus began what is today known as the Winter Park Fire Department. Residents and business owners continued to build the community’s fire protection resources through the purchase of more firefighting equipment, eventually purchasing their first motorized fire apparatus in 1923.
Even in those days, Winter Park was a leader in the provision of community services. Throughout the early years, Winter Park experienced several major fires that tested the capabilities of the fire department. New equipment and the need for fulltime firefighters brought about the hiring of career firefighters in the 1950’s.
Today Winter Park Fire Rescue is one of the most respected and high-performing fire and emergency medical service providers in the country. Today’s WPFD is accredited through the Commission on Fire Accreditation International and the Commission for the Accreditation of Ambulance Services, and has received a fire protection classification rating of Class 1 from the ISO. Our firefighters and staff feel it our obligation to not only provide our citizens the absolute best and highest levels of service but to advance our profession and exceed expectations.
Our C.A.R.E. Values, Mission and Vision
Our Mission
The Mission of the Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department is to protect and preserve our community through prompt, professional delivery of services.
Our Vision
Our vision is that by the end of year 2015, the Winter Park Fire Rescue Department will be widely recognized as an organization which utilizes best practices in the delivery of services to our community. Our International Accreditation will promote continuous improvement and validate the consistent, timely, and quality services our community trusts us to provide.
In honoring our community’s trust, we are committed to providing effective, efficient, fiscally-responsible service while presenting COMPASSION and EMPATHY as we perform our duties. We will expand our internal and external communications and information dissemination initiatives so that our priorities, philosophy and operations are clearly understood by our community members. By proactively identifying our community’s evolving risks, and the dynamic demands of those risks, we will improve our response capabilities while implementing resource and deployment strategies carrying the best interest of our community in accomplishing our mission.
Our internal culture will reflect a RESPECTFUL team atmosphere nurtured by open internal communication processes providing greater information sharing and involvement in decisions to accomplish our mission. Our workforce planning efforts will embrace the diversity reflected by our community, improve the quality recruitment and retention, and promote career development for the future success of our members and our agency. Our dedicated members will convey integrity in our commitment to excellence by demonstrating professional and courteous delivery of services to all those living, working, or visiting in our community.
Our leadership and workforce will be ACCOUNTABLE to one another in applying our organizational mission and values, while continuously striving to reach our goals. Emphasis will be placed upon gaining consensus and ownership with organizational issues thereby assuring continued job satisfaction and excellent customer service. Employee safety and preparation will be a priority accomplished through our community hazard and risk preplanning efforts.
We will expend time and energy towards developing the best strategies for service delivery while enhancing programs through training and personnel development. The effective management of our physical resources will allow us to explore all opportunities to implement new and better utilized technology to improve the quality of support and operational services.
Our vision, through these efforts, is that our CARE values will be demonstrated as an integral part of our organizational culture and that we will consistently meet or exceed the expectations of the community.
As developed through our Community-Based Strategic Planning Process.