Fire Suppression & Emergency Medical Services
As with other fire departments, NDFD is best known for responding to reports of fires, emergency medical calls and rescues.
Fire Suppression
NDFD answers all fire emergency calls in our coverage area and has mutual aid agreements with neighboring agencies for major incidents.
Approximately a third of NDFD’s 1,500 annual calls for service are related to fire incidents. The most common are cooking issues caused by students using excessive amounts of cooking oil and not closely monitoring their cooking, which can lead to an overheating situation. These types of fires can be easily prevented by simply paying careful attention to any cooking activity and making sure that cooking surfaces are clean before use.
More information is available on the Fire Safety page.
Emergency Medical Services
Medical emergencies constitute the majority of NDFD’s responses with over half of the department’s calls dealing with the ill and injured in our coverage area. NDFD is a state certified basic life support, non-transporting emergency medical service that responds first to all medical calls to help assess and treat patients prior to the arrival of an ambulance.
If the incident is minor, NDFD’s EMTs and Paramedics will arrange for transport by the Notre Dame Security Police Department to the University Health Services or to a nearby hospital. If an ambulance is needed, advanced life support ambulance care is contracted through the South Bend Fire Department.
NDFD also provides medical coverage for intramural sports events and large special events with student EMTs and firefighters.