Growth in Numbers

Some of the early records from the Oklahoma State Firefighters Pension System show that in 1921 the Sand Springs Fire Department had one paid firefighter, Chief C.G. Stricklen, with nine on-call firefighters. These firefighters were not employed by the City. Instead, they were paid for each of their responses when fire alarms came in. In 1922, the department had two companies with ten volunteer firefighters and one paid firefighter, with a second paid firefighter coming in 1923. In 1928, the City hired another full-time firefighter, bringing the total to three. By 1950, the City had increased its staffing to five paid firefighters and thirteen volunteer firefighters. In 1957, staffing was brought up to six full-time and 15 volunteer firefighters.  During the tenure of Fire Chief Sam Harvey, the number of paid firefighters grew to 28, with the last volunteers, Roy Morrison and William Forsythe, retiring in 1985. The Sand Springs Fire Department has grown substantially since then, bringing our numbers to 33 paid firefighters in 2023.

Fire Administration

Fire Administration is made up of a Fire Chief, a Deputy Fire Chief, a Fire Marshal, and an Administrative Assistant. Up until 2004, the Fire Administration offices were housed at Fire Station 1. In 2004 they were relocated to a former attorney’s office located across the alley from Station 1 at 108 East Broadway. When the Billie A. Hall Public Safety Center was built in 2019, Fire Administration was able to join the firefighter companies in the Station.

Fire Stations

Fire Station 1 was located directly South of City Hall from the time of the first volunteers until around 1981. It was torn down and is now an alley that runs from North McKinley Avenue to North Lincoln Avenue. A “new” station was constructed to the south of where the old station stood. This station operated for over 35 years housing two companies and hundreds of different firefighters. In 2019 it was torn down and made into a parking lot for City Hall employees.

Fire Station 1 was then relocated to the Billie A. Hall Public Safety Center located at 602 West Morrow Road. This state of the art public safety center houses two full companies with a minimum of nine paid firefighters per shift.

 Fire Station 2 was constructed in 1970 to protect and serve the southern area of Sand Springs, commonly known as Prattville. This station was located in the 4100 block of South 113^th West Avenue and housed one company. In 2018, a new station was built directly to the South of the original station and houses one company with a minimum of three firefighters per shift.