About NDFD

Notre Dame Fire Department in 1909Notre Dame firefighters posing with equipment in 1909

Serving three colleges and 15,000 citizens – and a population that swells to over 100,000 during a football game – the members of the University of Notre Dame Fire Department (NDFD) devote a significant portion of their lives by working 24 hours shifts to safeguard the Notre Dame Community.

As a full service life-safety agency, NDFD is a vital component of the University’s mission to provide a safe environment for our faculty, staff, students and visitors. Serving since 1879, NDFD has evolved from volunteers responding when the alarm sounded to a professional department that seeks to prevent fires through public education, fire code inspections and fire protection system maintenance as well as being trained and equipped in order to be able to respond to the 1300 calls for service we receive annually.