National Park Service Fire Departments

The National Park Service, or NPS, is part of the United States Department of the Interior. It manages 423 park units and more than 85 million acres of land throughout the entire United States and its territories, from Maine to Guam. Of the 423 park units, 307 have burnable vegetation for a total of 53 million acres.

Through interagency agreements NPS fire management resources support other federal, state, tribal, local and non-governmental partners in wildland fire management activities.

As of 2023, the NPS firefighting fleet consists of approximately 275 pieces of dedicated wildland fire equipment The fleet is broken down into:

100 Command Vehicles
4 Crew Carriers
130 Engines
- Of which 49 are Structural Engines
31 Fire Module Vehicles
3 Water Tenders
7 Helicopters
2 Fire Boats

Structural Fire Program[]

Engine company parks are national park units that maintain an NPS-staffed and owned Type I or II structure fire apparatus for structure fire and all-hazard response within the park. In most cases these parks are part of a local mutual aid agreement. Currently 16 NPS sites maintain 45 fire stations, which are equipped with 47 structural fire engines, staffed and supported by approximately 250 employees and partners. Additionally, six fire boats are owned by NPS and staffed by NPS firefighters.^[1] Although engine company parks comprise only six percent of the total number of sites in the NPS, many of them are seen as the agency's “crown jewels” and represent the first parks ever established.

Big Bend National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Death Valley National Park
Glacier National Park
Glacier Bay National Park
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Kalaupapa National Historical Park
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
Mesa Verde National Park
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
Yellowstone National Park
Yosemite National Park
Zion National Park

NPS-owned apparatus managed and staffed by local volunteer fire departments to provide fire suppression capabilities to the park:

Acadia National Park
Buffalo National River
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Wildland Fire Program[]

The National Park Service Wildland Fire Management Program manages wildland fire to protect the public, park communities, and infrastructure, conserve natural and cultural resources, and maintain and restore natural ecosystem processes. The program is divided into 48 Fire Management Zones which are served by 81 Type 3 -> 6 engines, 3 water tenders, and numerous support vehicles. The agency maintains a number of modules including:

Alpine Interagency Hotshot Crew
Arrowhead Interagency Hotshot Crew
Black Canyon Wildland Fire Module
Black Hills Wildland Fire Module
Buffalo River Wildland Fire Module
Cumberland Gap Wildland Fire Module
Great Smoky Wildland Fire Module
Kaweah Wildland Fire Module
Rocky Mountain Wildland Fire Module
Saguaro Wildland Fire Module
Shuksan Wildland Fire Module
Whiskeytown Wildland Fire Module
Yosemite Wildland Fire Module

Apparatus On Order[]

On 3rd March 2024, the DOI awarded contracts to numerous manufacturers for new engines to replace the ageing fleet, NPS will recieve;

12 Model 662s from BFX (Acadia, Big Thicket, Cape Cod, Dinosaur, Grand Canyon, Harpers Ferry, Lava Beds, Mount Rainier, Point Reyes, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Shenandoah, Theodore Roosevelt)
6 Model 665s from Pierce (Everglades, Joshua Tree, Point Reyes, Redwood, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Whiskeytown)