Beaver Lake Fire Department
Mission
The mission of the Beaver Lake Fire Department is to preserve life and property by maintaining a corps of professional, properly trained and fully equipped personnel capable of providing fire suppression, rescue, emergency medical services, and fire prevention/education, to those in need.
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Beaver Lake Fire Department is now accepting tax deductible donations through PayPal. Simply click on the link below.
About the BLFD
The Beaver Lake Fire Department (BLFD) was formed in 1979, under the direction of Chief Bob Linville. In the early days BLFD had only a late 50’s model pickup truck with a brush pump. Our first fire-engine was donated by the Lowell Fire Department, but was found to be underpowered for the hills of our district. Today BLFD has nine emergency apparatus and responds to nearly 900 calls each year.
Starting with the single fire station located on Cypress Ln, in Beaver Shores, the BLFD added a second fire station on Grimes Dr in 1998. BLFD hired Benton County’s first paid volunteer fire chief (Andy Jaeger) in 1986. Chief Jaeger served our community for 22 years before retiring. His leadership and vision paved the way for lower home-owners insurance premiums for many of our residents through an improved ISO class 6 rating.
Chief Jerry Owen, who served many years as a volunteer for BLFD and who retired from the City of Rogers FD after a long career, helped to modernize our fire apparatus fleet and helped to make a much needed addition to our Cypress Ln fire station adding a classroom and living facilities. Chief Owen retired at the end of 2012 after a 40 year career in the fire service.
Chief Mark Finocchio began his work for BLFD in 2013, bringing his years of experience from across the country to help guide our department through a period of retirements. Men and Women who served our community for 20-30 years who forged the path and set valuable traditions for emergency services in our community.
Beginning in the fall of 2014, John Whisenant was hired as BLFD’s fourth paid fire chief. Under the leadership and vision of Chief Whisenant, BLFD has transitioned into a combination department (paid/volunteer). BLFD has added ALS ambulance service in partnership with Mercy EMS.
In March of 2023, Dusty Qualls was named Beaver Lake Fire Department Fire Chief. BLFD employes one part time fire chief, four fulltime Firefighter/EMT’s, more than a dozen part-time personnel, one live-in FF/EMT who lives at our Grimes Dr. Station, along with our volunteers. Together with the Mercy provided paramedics we maintain an ALS ambulance 24/7. BLFD has also added water rescue services, enhanced our motor vehicle response capability and improved our ISO rating to a Class 4. As the needs of our community continue to evolve, so does the BLFD we are poised to answer the needs of our community now and into the future.