Hazard Fire Department serves 30,000 daily in Perry County

Hazard Fire Department is the first line of protection for Perry County’s seat, and its numbers show why. The department says it serves about 7,000 full-time residents, but that figure swells to nearly 30,000 people during the workday as county offices, businesses and visitors move through Hazard. With an ISO rating of four, the department carries the burden of a small-city fire service with a much larger daytime load.

That load is split across two stations, one in downtown Hazard and another near Hazard ARH Hospital. The department houses three engines, two ladder trucks, three rescue vehicles, one haz-mat unit and one command unit. Inside that fleet is the reality of what the city depends on most: not just structure fire response, but medical assists, wrecks, hazardous materials calls, severe weather response and other emergencies that can pile up quickly in a rural county.

Staffing reflects that same pressure. Hazard Fire Department has 46 firefighters, including seven trained paramedics and 22 Emergency Medical Technicians. It also has six State Fire Rescue Instructors and 11 certified in-house fire instructors, a sign that the department is not only answering calls but also building its own training pipeline. The county says the average EMT and fire-engine response time to calls within city limits is four minutes, a measure that matters when seconds decide whether a fire stays contained or a rescue call turns worse.

The department’s role extends beyond city limits in practice, because Hazard is also where Perry County Emergency Management is headquartered at 481 Main Street. Jerry Stacy serves as emergency management director, and the office’s job is to bring agencies and organizations together for a quick return to normal routines after a crisis. That matters in a county seat that has to coordinate with Hazard City Police, the Perry County Sheriff, Kentucky State Police and Hazard ARH Regional Medical Center when the next major call comes in.

Hazard’s emergency footprint is rooted in a long civic history. Perry County was founded in 1820, and Hazard was founded in 1884 on land deeded by Elijah Combs and Sarah Combs. The city takes its name from Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, but today its practical identity is far less ceremonial: it is the county’s command center for fire, rescue and disaster response. That role was tested again when Kentucky’s flood response covered the severe storms, flooding and mudslides that began July 26, 2022, and when Gov. Andy Beshear visited flood-affected residents in Perry and Knott counties on Feb. 26, 2025. In a county vulnerable to fast-moving emergencies, Hazard Fire Department remains the engine that keeps the seat covered.