Charleston Fire Department

fire_dept_patchCharleston Fire Department is a  progressive career department providing Fire, ALS  Ambulance, Rescue, Haz-Mat, and  Technical Rescue services (TRT). We have 24-Firefighters-Paramedics, 6- Lieutenants, 3-Captain-Paramedics, a Chief and Assistant Chief. We are located in Coles County in East Central Illinois. Charleston has a population of 17,347, with the city still expanding to fulfill the needs of the community. Charleston is home to Eastern Illinois University (EIU), a highly ranked university with an expanding enrollment of over 7,000 students. We provide fire protection to Charleston and EIU. We provide ALS ambulance and rescue to Charleston, EIU, and the Eastern half of Coles County. The Eastern half of Coles County is a sparsely populated rural area with an additional eight towns and villages. We have Mutual Aid Response with ten area fire departments and five area ambulance services. In 2023 Charleston Fire responded to 5,675 fire calls, and Emergency Medical calls. We are active in pre-fire planning, and we perform annual occupancy inspections of all places of assembly within the City of Charleston.


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Tim Meister, Asst. Chief
Charleston is a regional training ground for several area departments. We offer several classes throughout the year from fire, rescue, command, technical rescue, Haz-Mat, and some classes with police and the crisis response team. Charleston is a host department for one of the State Hazardous Material and Technical Rescue teams. The Haz-Mat team involves fifty members from area agencies as does the Technical Rescue team with a roster of forty Rescue Technicians. We cover 14 counties in the Department of Homeland Security Region 17. This is the largest region in Illinois, covering 6800 square miles, with a population of 300,000. With some of the southern state teams not up and running, we cover even a larger area of central and southern Illinois. We have had Haz-Mat responses that involved an hour of road time. 

Charleston is a member of the Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS). We are in Division 26 of Illinois MABAS. With MABAS, Charleston Fire responded with an Engine Company to New Orleans with the first deployment and four personnel with the second deployment. Both teams spent two weeks in New Orleans helping with the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. We have members on the State Incident Management Team that responded to Hurricane Gustav in 2008 and the Mississippi Floods in 2009 and again in 2011. You can see we are a small department, but a very active group, providing several disciplines and services, locally and at the state level.

Charleston protects several facilities within the city and county. In Charleston, we protect Eastern Illinois University and its power plant. We protect over thirty residential care homes in the city.  We are also the designated confined space response team for numerous business and manufacturing facilities, in Charleston and a six-county area as first due.

Work with us! 

Upcoming Test: May 4, 2024 at 8:00AM
Deadline to Apply: April 25, 2024

Click here for more information. 



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Charleston Fire Dept. awarded ISO rating of 2
Fire Station #1

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Fire Station #1
404 10th Street
Charleston, IL 61920

Phone (217) 345-2132

Fire Station #2

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Fire Station #2
1510 A Street
Charleston, IL 61920

Phone (217) 345-2133
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