Silvis Departments

Fire Department

The Silvis Fire Department was founded in 1908 and has a long history of providing public safety to the residents, businesses and visitors of Silvis. The department is made up of 30 paid-on-call firefighters and a full-time chief. Residents of Silvis comprise the majority of the fire department. They dedicate their time and energy to protecting and preserving life, property and the environment.

In 2018, the Silvis Fire Department was awarded a favorable Insurance Services Office (ISO) Public Protection Classification (PPC) rating of 4. According to ISO, “ISO collects information on municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States. In each of those communities, ISO analyzes the relevant data using our Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS). We then assign a Public Protection Classification from 1 to 10. Class 1 generally represents superior property fire protection, and class 10 indicates that the area's fire-suppression program doesn't meet ISO’s minimum criteria.”

Firefighters train to the standards set by the Illinois Fire Marshal Office and have (or are working towards) their Illinois Basic Operations Firefighter certification. The department is continuously trying to improve the quality of services we provide through progressive training and education. Members of the department participated in nearly 1,900 training hours in 2022. This is on top of responding to calls, regular shift days, their full-time employment and spending time with their families.

Community risk reduction is a priority of the department. The easiest way to keep citizens and firefighters safe is to reduce the number of fires. We do this through public education events at businesses and residences along with providing smoke detectors to owner-occupied homes. We are actively in the schools providing public education to the students. We have a certified Life Safety Specialist who is also a Youth Firesetting Intervention Specialist. He works with the youth of the area to not only provide fire safety messages but also focuses on how identification, intake, screening, disposition and follow-up are used to mitigate youth firesetting behavior.

The department has mutual and automatic aid agreements with surrounding departments and is a member of MABAS division 39. The department operates out of two stations and has a response capability of three engines, one ladder truck, one command vehicle, two support vehicles and one UTV.