Carver Fire Department Chief's Message

Your Carver Fire Department is a goal-orientated organization that prides itself in providing a superior level of service to our community at the lowest possible cost to each taxpayer.

The mission statement of the Carver Fire Department is “To be a leading Emergency Service Organization by meeting or exceeding the needs of our community in Fire Prevention, Fire Suppression, and Rescue Operations” and has become the benchmark from which our goals are derived each year.

We would like to thank the residents of Carver for your support throughout 2023!

Your Carver Fire Department has continued to meet every challenge we have encountered. CFD has not missed a beat and as a Team, continues to be there for our community and each other. For that, I am extremely proud of every Officer, Firefighter, Dispatcher and their families!

2023 has also been a year of accomplishments for our Department.  Your Fire Department continues to maintain an ISO 2/2Y fire service rating through the Insurance Services Office (ISO).  This rating puts Carver Fire within the top 4% of Fire Departments across the entire nation.

With the support of our community, we recently put in service 140 new SCBA Bottles, upgraded over 40 SCBA Buddy Breathing units, put in service all new Motorola APX Mobile and Portable Radios, upgraded our Fire Station 3 Training Facility and Kitchen Area, upgraded our IT Smart Displays at Fire Dispatch, Station 2 and 3 and are currently rehabbing our 1998 Brush Breaker.  We graduated 7 new Carver Firefighters utilizing our new training facility and excellent in-house staff of certified Recruit and Station trainers and are in the process of hiring 4 new On-Call Firefighters that will graduate in May 2024.  We mitigated numerous fire emergencies within the community, averaging a 5.5 minute response time, and averaging 22 certified Firefighters responding during the daytime and 30 Firefighters in the evenings.  These accomplishments don’t just happen by themselves, but come from the support of our community and hard work from the Officers and Firefighters of your Fire Department. 

The Carver Fire Department continues to be one of the lowest funded Fire Departments in the Commonwealth, at an annual cost of $825,000 or about $71 per resident.  The dedication of our 87 member team is at the center of our flourishing Call Firefighting System that has been nationally recognized.  Our system is continuously used as a model for several Fire Departments across the country, something that we can all be proud of.

MILESTONES OF 2023

  • Our Fire Department continues as an official ISO 2/2Y Department. We are proud to announce continued savings to our residents from $100 to $600 per household.  To our knowledge, we maintain the highest ISO ranking for a Call Fire Department in the State of Massachusetts.
  • Currently rehabbing our 1998 Brush Breaker Apparatus
  • Replaced 140 SCBA Bottles and over 40 SCBA Buddy Breathing apparatus
  • Replaced our 2013 Command Car 2 with a 2023 Tahoe Command Car 2 and are currently replacing our 2014 Command Car 1 with a 2024 Tahoe Command Car 1
  • We recently upgraded our Public Safety Fiber Optic Network and added Apparatus Cameras and Access Control Systems to our Fire Station 2 and Fire Station 3.
  • Currently, we are in the process of bringing on line a new Public Safety Radio Receiving Site, Generator and equipment shelter in our South Carver Area.
  • We have implemented a Carver High School Fire Intern Program, currently training six high school seniors in basic firefighting skills. This is a highly competitive fire intern program.
  • In 2023, we received a Department of Fire Services Safe Grant ($6,500), a Firefighter Safety Grant ($19,000), and a Makepeace donation in excess of $50,000 (Generator / Radio Shelter)
  • Our Dive Team, consisting of 13 certified divers and 7 certified support personnel continue to excel, maintaining their Public Safety Dive Team Certification. The team also completed construction of a new training prop.
  • We conducted a Department wide Live Structure Fire Simulation Trainings at our state of the art Training Facility. All Firefighters were trained in live fire scenarios, search and rescue, ladder rescues and water supply operations, all under realistic conditions.
  • We manage and maintain a Professional Call Firefighting force that excels in regards to manpower for the critical daytime responses.
  • We consider ourselves innovators of training. We continually explore and employ cutting edge practices in an effort to remain ahead of the curve in regards to training and personal safety. Training classes ranged from the Live Structure Fire training at our modern Training Facility, realistic Wild Fire Trainings, Safety Officer Driving Drills, Dive Drills and numerous Real Life / Hands on Incident Drills.
  • By design, we continue to be one of the lower funded Firefighter Departments in the State, ($71/resident) with approximately 1.9% of Town budget being directed to the Fire Department.
  • We continue to educate children and adults with hands on Fire Prevention Programs in the subjects associated with ALICE, Fire Prevention, Babysitter and Home Fire Safety.
  • We successfully managed a Public Safety Radio Upgrade Committee, a Dive Team, an Honor Guard, a Rapid Intervention Committee and a Photo Team Committee. All of these Committees are team oriented and focused on staying proactive in maintaining a Call Firefighting System and enhancing Public Safety in the Town of Carver.

Please join us in congratulating Firefighter John Fein on his recent retirement from the Carver Fire Department.  Firefighter John Fein served our community for 35 years.  John, please accept a sincere thank you from all of us at CFD for 35 years of Loyalty, Dedication, Commitment, and most of all, your friendship.

I am extremely proud of the PRIDE and professionalism of each of our Officers and Firefighters in the performance of their duties in 2023.  Their unselfish sacrifice, dedication, and loyalty are matched only by that of their families, as they to sacrifice every time our Firefighters are called to duty.  I recognize the stress that this causes on their families and I am forever grateful for their support in allowing each one of our Firefighters to respond to help someone in their time of need.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the citizens of our community for your support and investment in the Carver Fire Department during the past year.  Your support matters and is appreciated by all of us here at CFD!

A special thank you to our Town Administrator, Robert Fennessy, all Departments and Boards of the Town for their cooperation and assistance over the past year.

We continually remind ourselves where we have come from and those people before us that got us here!

Respectfully submitted,


Craig F. Weston
Fire Chief

Eric P. Germaine
Deputy Fire Chief

Jesse Boyle
Assistant Deputy Fire Chief