The Sharon Fire Department protects the lives and property of its residents, businesses and visitors through a timely delivery of emergency services, and advances public safety through fire prevention, inspection, and education programs.
The Sharon Fire dept. Local # 417 of the I.A.F.F is located on the first floor in the city building of the City of Sharon. We have a coverage area of roughly 4 square miles, consisting of a condensed mix of residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial areas. We provide fire suppression, fire safety & prevention education, first responder calls, basic first aid, motor vehicle accidents, fire rescue, and Hazardous material spills. As well as protecting the lives and property of roughly 18,000 people.
Our Dept consists of; a main fire station, staffed 24/7/365 by a full-time fire chief, 16 full-time firefighters, and 7 part-time firefighters. Our dept is equipped with 3 - pumper/engines, 1 - one hundred foot aerial ladder, a rescue boat, and a mobile air refilling trailer.
Some of the major structures in our jurisdiction include; the hospital of Sharon Regional Health System, Sharon Coatings, The Winner store, Reyers’ shoe store, Daffins’ Candies, Sharon Senior High school, Riverview Manor Apartments, Connelly Manor apartments, Juniper Village apartments, Penn State Shenango Campus, as well as various local grade schools, churches, funeral homes, restaurants, pharmacies and other well established local businesses.
The Sharon fire dept was originally formed in the late 1800's, as a part paid/part volunteer dept with one station (a picture of which is on this site) and approximately 30+ members on the dept. The city population at the time was around 30,000 people.
In the early 1900’s the city of Sharon encompassed parts of what now are the City of Farrell, and were known as South Sharon. It included a fire station which later became the main Farrell fire station.
The dept purchased its first "motorized" vehicle in 1913, a "Robinson" pumper truck which was later sold around 1935. Until that time, the dept was still using horses.
Around the early 1950's the dept. made a transition to a full time paid professional department, which consisted of a dept complement of around 28 paid firefighters. At one point they, manned 3 stations, one at the original city building which was then on Chestnut Street (where the bank now sits), one on South Irvine Avenue, and one on the corner of the Shenango Valley Freeway and Stambaugh Avenue. The city population was around 28,000 people and the steel industry for the area was booming. As times have changed in the area as well as the city, the dept has grown smaller, as the population has dwindled. But the priority of the department has remained the same, to protect the property and lives of the citizens of the City of Sharon to the utmost of our abilities. We take great pride in our professionalism, our knowledge and expertise. With hard work and determination by our members, we have secured federal grants the past few years to purchase much needed new equipment, extra manpower, and even a brand new pumper.
The once booming steel industries have gone, but new industries are beginning to take their place. Currently we are seeing the beginning signs of growth in Sharon as well as the surrounding communities. We look forward to continuing to provide the highest level of protection and service to the citizens of Sharon, as they have become accustomed to expecting from us. As always, we invite anyone who is interested, to visit us anytime during regular business hours. We welcome any questions you may have and are proud to show you what we do.
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