Fact Sheet

Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the Blowing Rock Volunteer Fire Department provides fire services to approximately 50 square miles. Blowing Rock Fire District consists of a small downtown business district, and stretches across rural and wilderness areas in Watauga and Caldwell County.

Blowing Rock Fire Department has a combination volunteer and career fire department with approximately 32 active volunteer members and 4 career personnel. The officers and members are dedicated to the preservation and protection of life and property. Volunteers give more than just their services and are dispatched on emergency calls at all hours of the day and night by department issued pagers with tone.

The department is headed operationally by Chief Dennis Bolick who was appointed fire chief in 2003 and has served as a volunteer for 16 years. Administratively, the department is run by a president, R. L. Suddreth who has served on the fire department since 1976. Career personnel supplement the volunteer fire department and rescue squad. They also provide 24-hour department coverage and are employees of the Town of Blowing Rock.

Firefighters are constantly training and pre-planning for all types of emergencies. We are not just responding to fires now. Firefighters are dispatched for wrecks, hazardous materials, weather emergencies and to assist EMS. Blowing Rock Firefighters are doing more than putting out fires and treating injuries! They're teaching citizens how to prevent them!

For 80 years, Blowing Rock Fire Department has grown and changed with the community it serves.

We value the citizens who call us their fire department.