The Chesapeake Fire Department is a progressive organization of over 428 members serving the 227,000 citizens of the City of Chesapeake. From our 15 fire stations, we provide fire protection, rescue, and emergency medical services for the 353 square miles of urban, suburban and rural areas within our city limits. Our Special Operations include hazardous materials, technical rescue, marine fireboat, and foam firefighting teams. Our services include fire prevention, life safety education, arson investigation, code enforcement, plans review, environmental quality and the Office of Emergency Management. Our Mission We dedicate ourselves to protect and improve your quality of life by providing responsive and caring service. Chesapeake is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. One of the cities in the South Hampton Roads, Chesapeake was organized in 1963 by voter referendums approving the political consolidation of the city of South Norfolk with the remnants of the former Norfolk County, which dated to 1691. (Much of the territory of the county had been annexed by other cities.) Chesapeake is the second-largest city by land area in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Chesapeake is a diverse city in which a few urban areas are located; it also has many square miles of protected farmland, forests, and wetlands, including a substantial portion of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Extending from the rural border with North Carolina to the harbor area of Hampton Roads adjacent to the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach, Chesapeake is located on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It has miles of waterfront industrial, commercial and residential property. In 2011, Chesapeake was named the 21st best city in America by Bloomberg Businessweek.
