Mill Valley Fire Department, 28 Valley Cir, Ste 2800, Mill Valley, CA 94941, US

First organized in 1890 as a volunteer force, the Mill Valley Fire Department has come a long way from its days of beating fires out with wet potato sacks and an old 1924 American La France. Firefighters are specialized in a wide-range of skills in addition to firefighting and emergency medicine, including fire investigations, high-angle cliff rescue, Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams, CPR and first aid instruction. Mill Valley's heavily wooded canyons and the steep terrain of the community have the department on constant alert for the threat of a major wild fire. The department's two stations are manned with seven fire fighters on duty and 24 line personnel, using four pieces of equipment on a shift: two engines with 500 gallons of water each, one wildland fire engine and one command truck. The main fire station is located at the City of Mill Valley's Public Safety Building on Hamilton Drive.