Fire Department Information

Department History & Town Information

Prior to 1972, the Town of Greenville’s fire protection was the shared responsibility between the towns of Hortonville and Ellington.  Sometime during the mid-1960’s, Greenville residents decided that it was taking too long for the fire department to respond to any fire and they decided to get the ball rolling for their own fire department.  Bids for a new building to house fire equipment were requested in 1967 and by 1969, Greenville had its very own fire barn.  The first piece of apparatus we had was a 1948 model that was purchased from Hortonville during the transition to a separate department.  The department finally went solo in 1972, operating as a separate entity with Nob’s Sigl as the first appointed fire chief.  Initially, the fire chief would get the call for help and he in turn would call another fire-fighter who then would call others and give the details of the fire call.  Over the years we have progressed with new trucks, equipment, and many new faces on the department.  Today our department roster is authorized to carry up to 50 firefighters and officers.  Our EMS first responder group is a separate entity but still under the supervision of the fire chief.  The group consists of 15 first responders, some of whom work double-duty as firefighters.  In 2010, the fire department/first responders responded to over 350 Fire/EMS calls. 
Currently, the Greenville Fire Department protection district covers over 36 square miles which includes a diverse community of business, industry and residential subdivisions along with a number of rural farms.  Several business and industrial parks are home to many large companies such as Federal Express, Jansport, School Specialties, Plexus, and Kimberly Clark not to mention the Outagamie County Airport, the fourth largest airport in Wisconsin.  The Town of Greenville has undergone a period of vigorous growth since 1990 adding many new retail businesses, restaurants, medical and dental clinics over the past few years.  The residential housing boom has expanded our population from 3,794 in 1990 to our current 2010 population of 10,020 residents. 

Fire Department General Information

The Greenville Fire Department is comprised of approximately 50 firefighters and officers plus 15 EMS-first responders.  Though we are generally considered a volunteer organization, we have (2) full-time Fire Fighter/First Responders and our members receive a stipend for each fire call attended.  The State of Wisconsin classifies fire departments into 3 basic categories:  career, combination and volunteer departments.  A career fire department is one that 100% of the members are full or part-time paid employees.  A combination department is one that is made up of full, part-time, but relies on “paid-on-call” or volunteer members to compliment staffing.  Volunteer departments are predominantly made up of volunteers, and “paid-on-call” members.

Personnel

All candidates hired are required to successfully complete approximately100 hours of classroom training   and earning State of Wisconsin Firefighter I certification.  This training, which includes structural firefighting, rescue skills and hazardous material awareness, is taught through Fox Valley Technical College in conjunction with the NFPA 1001 standard (Standard for firefighter professional qualifications).  Many firefighters go on to take classes for enhanced qualifications such as Firefighter II, Driver/Operator-Pumper, Fire Officer and Fire Inspector.  Even though we train as a department at least twice each month, there are many additional outside training opportunities that some firefighters take advantage of on their own personal time to stay on the cutting edge of technology and tactics.  Having these individuals willing to go above and beyond demonstrates their dedication and leadership that is such an asset to the Greenville Fire Department

“Ours is a serious job,

                  Take what we do seriously,

                                    Train like it’s real,

                                                      Be Safe and Have Fun”

Command Staff

Firefighters/First Responders