FIRE DEPARTMENT

Fire Chief, Billy J. Mims         Deputy Chief, Rickey Owens

Captain, Nick Cole                  Captain, Mike Goodwin

Lieutenant, Brandon Anderson              Lieutenant, Josh Taylor             

The Cottonwood Fire Department serves a primary response area of 45 square miles with a population of 4,500. The daytime population dramatically increases with the local high school bringing an  students to Cottonwood and increasing the population to more than 5,000. The area is a mix of suburban bedroom community with light commercial structures and extensive woodlands and agricultural use. State Highway 53 bisects the territory with truck and passenger car traffic.

The Cottonwood Fire Department has more than 20 active volunteer members. These personnel are dispatched by the Houston County 9-1-1 Center using computer aided dispatch via tone encoded radio and automatic CAD initiated alphanumeric paging. All members are issued portable multi-channel radios. Each apparatus is equipped with a multi-channel UHF radio. The department also has capabilities of direct communications with Jackson County Florida Fire & Rescue and AirHeart Air Ambulance which is based in Marianna, Florida.

This is a busy rural fire department with well over 100 calls for service annually. The Cottonwood Fire Department operates three pumpers, one brush truck, and one tanker. The Cottonwood Fire Department provides structural fire suppression, woodland fire suppression, and response to motor vehicle crashes with basic life support, extrication capabilities, and defensive hazardous materials operations. The Cottonwood Fire Department provides routine automatic mutual aid to the Madrid Fire Department, Lucy Fire Department, Lovetown Fire Department, Hodgesville Fire Department, The Alabama Forestry Commission, and the nearby departments of Jackson County Florida.