Ketchikan Fire Department

10/14/2026

💨🌧️ KETCHIKAN… THE WIND HAS DECIDED TO STOP PLAYING NICE! 🚒😂

Apparently, Mother Nature looked at Southeast Alaska and said, “You know what this place needs? A leaf blower the size of a Boeing 747!” ✈️💨

⚠️ WIND ADVISORY — HERE WE BLOW AGAIN! ⚠️

📅 WHEN: Thursday at 1 AM through Friday at 4 AM.

💨 WINDS: Southeast 25–35 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph!

🏔️ HIGHER ELEVATIONS: Gusts above 1,000 feet could exceed 60 mph! At that point, even the mountain goats are looking for something to hold onto. 🐐

🌪️ STRONGEST WINDS: Thursday night into Friday morning.

🚒 Your Ketchikan Fire Department has a few friendly suggestions:

🪑 Secure your patio furniture. Your neighbor doesn’t need a new lawn chair delivered at 50 mph.

🗑️ Tie down those trash cans! Nobody wants to chase their garbage halfway to Saxman in their pajamas.

🎃 Check your Halloween decorations! That 12-foot skeleton you just put up could end up haunting an entirely different neighborhood.

🌲 Watch out for falling branches. Trees are about to start making some questionable life decisions.

🚗 Use caution while driving. Especially in exposed areas where the wind may decide your vehicle needs a lane

😂 Here in Ketchikan, we don’t check which way the wind is blowing. We just look to see which direction the garbage cans are traveling!

Stay safe, Ketchikan! Secure your belongings, keep an eye on the forecast, and remember — your Ketchikan Fire Department would much rather wave at you than respond to your flying patio furniture! 🚒❤️

🌐 Weather updates: weather.gov/juneau

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10/13/2026

🌧️💨 KETCHIKAN WEATHER ALERT: MOTHER NATURE HAS APPARENTLY ORDERED THE DELUXE CAR WASH PACKAGE! 🚒😂

Well, Ketchikan… apparently our recent weather wasn’t wet enough, so Mother Nature looked at the forecast and said, “Hold my rain gauge.” ☔🤣

Starting Thursday and rolling right through the weekend, Southeast Alaska is expecting a series of low-pressure systems bringing:

🌧️ Heavy Rain: Because apparently the regular rain wasn’t getting the job done.

💨 Strong Winds: Your patio furniture may be planning a weekend getaway without you.

🌊 Gale-Force Winds in the Gulf: Not exactly ideal weather for a relaxing three-hour tour. 🚢

🚒 Your Ketchikan Fire Department’s Official Weekend Survival Tips:

✅ Secure your outdoor furniture, trash cans, and anything else that might decide to relocate to your neighbor’s yard.

✅ Clear those storm drains. Your driveway is not supposed to double as a boat launch.

✅ Charge your phones and flashlights in case the power decides to take the weekend off.

✅ Slow down on wet roads. Your vehicle is not a jet ski, no matter how deep the puddle looks.

✅ Stay away from downed power lines. They’re not jump ropes, and we really don’t want to meet you that way.

⚠️ All joking aside: Forecasters are increasingly confident this could be a significant weather event for Southeast Alaska. The exact timing and impacts are still being determined, so please pay attention as the forecast develops.

📡 Follow the National Weather Service Juneau for updates:
👉 https://weather.gov/juneau

❤️ Your Ketchikan Fire Department will be ready, rain or shine. Although, let’s be serious… we all know which one it’s going to be.

Stay safe, Ketchikan! And remember, if you see the sun this weekend, please take a picture. We may need it for evidence. 😂🌧️🚒

Specialty Areas Space Weather Spot Forecast Ocean Surface Temperatures Tide Data COOP Program Observation Newsletters Juneau Wind Network SkyWarn NOAA Weather Radio Tsunami Warning Center Alaska Weather Line (AWIL)

10/09/2026

🚒🔥 Fire Safety, Southeast Alaska Style — Because Even 13 Feet of Rain Won't Put Out Every Fire! ☔🐟📚

Here in Ketchikan, we're pretty good at dealing with water. Between the rain, the tides, and the occasional sideways downpour, you'd think fire wouldn't stand a chance around here. Unfortunately, Mother Nature hasn't quite figured out how to make our homes fireproof! 😂🌧️

Last week, one of our dedicated volunteer firefighters, Sheen Davis, continued her annual tradition of hosting a Senior Fire Safety Training at the Ketchikan Public Library!

And let's give a big shout-out to our friends at the Ketchikan Public Library! 📚👏

Our library does a whole lot more than lend out books and provide a warm place to dry off after walking through another Southeast Alaska monsoon. Throughout the year, they host numerous fire and medical safety events and consistently invite the Ketchikan Fire Department to participate.

These events allow our firefighters and volunteers to get out into the community, share a few laughs, answer questions, and provide important home safety education and equipment, including:

🧯 Fire extinguishers — Because yelling "FIRE!" at your stove isn't an approved extinguishing method.

🔥 Fire blankets — Handy for certain small fires, and no, they're not meant to keep you warm during a Southeast power outage!

🚨 Smoke detectors — Because your nose shouldn't be your home's primary fire alarm system.

🏠 Home fire safety tips — Helping you make a plan before things get hotter than a woodstove in January!

Whether you're 8 or 80, fire safety matters. And while we absolutely love seeing our neighbors, we'd much rather visit you at the library than show up at your house with three fire engines, a ladder truck, and half the neighborhood watching from their porches! 🚒😂

A HUGE thank-you to Sheen Davis for continuing this wonderful annual tradition and to the incredible staff at the Ketchikan Public Library for their ongoing commitment to keeping our community safe.

❤️ Want to bring some fire safety education to your organization?

If you, your business, school, senior group, or community organization would like to host a fire safety event, we'd love to hear from you!

📞 Contact the Ketchikan Fire Department at 907-225-9616 to discuss scheduling a fire safety presentation or event.

We can bring the firefighters, the safety information, and maybe even a few good jokes. You'll have to provide your own coffee and smoked salmon! ☕🐟

These partnerships are what make Ketchikan such a special place to live. We're proud to serve a community that looks out for one another, rain or shine.

Although, let's face it, if we're waiting for sunshine to do fire prevention, we're going to be waiting a VERY long time! ☔😂

Stay safe, Ketchikan! Remember, the only thing we want smelling smoky in your house is your freshly caught salmon! 🐟🔥

10/02/2026

🌧️ Ketchikan… apparently the sky has scheduled another pressure-washing. 🌧️

A stronger weather system is headed our way Saturday into Sunday, bringing moderate to heavy rain. And because this is Ketchikan, Mother Nature apparently looked at our annual rainfall total and said, “Those are rookie numbers.”

☔ What to expect:
• 1.5–3 inches of rain for the event
• Possibly 5+ inches at higher elevations
• Rainfall rates could exceed 0.15 inches per hour overnight
• Creeks and streams may rise quickly, although flooding is not currently expected

Basically, if you were planning to mow the lawn this weekend… congratulations, you now have other plans.

🔥 A few reminders from your Ketchikan Fire Department: Secure anything outside that might decide to relocate, keep storm drains clear if you can safely do so, use extra caution around rapidly rising creeks, and never drive through water covering a roadway.

And since heavy rain and steep hillsides have occasionally had disagreements around here, please stay aware of your surroundings—especially near slopes, drainage areas, and creeks.

We’ll be keeping an eye on conditions throughout the weekend.

Stay safe, Ketchikan. Stay dry. Or at least stay Ketchikan-dry. ☔😂

KFD — professionally trained firefighters, amateur meteorologists by geographic necessity.

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09/25/2026

💰🚒 IT WAS A BIG GRANT WEEK AT KFD! 🚑💰

Apparently, while everyone else in Southeast Alaska was busy checking the rain gauge, watching for bears, and wondering if summer already happened, KFD was out hunting grants. And this week, three of them came home! 🎯

Ketchikan Fire Department was awarded:

🚒 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG)
👨‍🚒 SAFER Grant supporting volunteer recruitment and retention
❤️ Rural Health Transformation Grant to strengthen the Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) services we provide to residents of our city

Three major grant awards in one week is a pretty monumental occasion for our department.

These awards represent a lot more than money. They reflect KFD’s continued commitment to finding ways to improve our services, update our equipment and programs, support our people, and bring outside funding back to Ketchikan — all while reducing the burden on local taxpayers.

And we're not done yet. We still have a few more grant applications floating around out there waiting for review. 🤞

In Southeast Alaska terms, landing three grants in one week is kind of like getting three sunny days in a row — you don't ask too many questions, you just enjoy it while it's happening. 🌧️➡️☀️😂

A huge thank you to everyone who helped research, write, review, and submit these applications. Grant writing isn't glamorous, but weeks like this make all those hours staring at applications, budgets, and federal websites worth it.

Three grants. One week. Not bad, Ketchikan. Not bad at all. 🚒❤️

09/25/2026

🔥 SENIOR LIFE SAFETY: Because “I Didn’t Want to Bother 911” Is Not an Emergency Plan 🚒

Ketchikan Fire Department is heading to the Ketchikan Public Library for a little Senior Life Safety talk — and yes, there will be cookies. Apparently, “free cookies” tested better than “come listen to firefighters talk about emergency preparedness.” 🍪😂

We’ll cover some genuinely important stuff, including when you should call 9-1-1 (hint: chest pain is not a “let’s see how I feel tomorrow” situation), what information dispatchers need when you call, and how to make sure emergency responders can actually find your house when seconds count.

📅 Thursday, October 8
⏰ 1:30 p.m.
📍 Ketchikan Public Library

We’ll also have fire-safety freebies and cookies — because nothing says public safety quite like learning how to survive an emergency while eating a cookie.

Bring yourself, bring a friend, bring your questions. And if you have a parent, grandparent, neighbor, or friend who has ever said, “I didn’t call because I didn’t want to bother you guys,” please bring them. You are never bothering us when you need help.

🚒 Your Ketchikan Fire Department — helping keep Ketchikan safe, one senior, one smoke alarm, and apparently one cookie at a time. 🍪🔥

09/19/2026

💨🔥 KETCHIKAN WEATHER ALERT: FREE SAME-DAY SHIPPING IS BACK.

Unfortunately, it’s for your garbage cans, patio furniture, tarps, and anything else you forgot to tie down. No tracking number will be provided.

Mother Nature apparently looked at Ketchikan and said, “You know what this place needs? More wind.”

A Wind Advisory is in effect from 4 PM Saturday until 7 AM Sunday, with southeast winds of 15–25 mph and gusts near 40 mph.

The strongest winds are expected Saturday evening into late Saturday night.

So before things get sporty outside, please take a few minutes to secure anything you’d prefer not to donate to another neighborhood.

🗑️ Garbage cans: Strap them down. Otherwise, they’ll be participating in the Ketchikan Grand Prix.

🪑 Patio furniture: Secure it. Nobody wants to explain to their insurance company how a lawn chair became airborne.

🚤 Tarps: Tighten them down unless you enjoy listening to WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP at 2:17 AM while questioning every decision you’ve ever made.

🎃 Halloween decorations: If your 12-foot skeleton ends up in Saxman, he lives there now.

🌲 Trees: Give them some space. Strong gusts can knock down limbs and occasionally cause power outages.

And finally…

If you wake up Sunday morning and your garbage can is gone, please check Facebook Marketplace before calling Dispatch. 😂

Charge your phones, keep flashlights handy, use caution while driving, and secure outdoor objects before the wind gets going.

Stay safe, Ketchikan. We’d prefer everyone’s belongings remain in approximately the same ZIP code tonight. 💨😂🔥

— Your Ketchikan Fire Department

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09/14/2026

🚲 Helmets, Hot Dogs, and a Great Day at the Firehouse! 🌭

At your Ketchikan Fire Department, we believe the firehouse belongs to the community. It should be more than a place where emergency vehicles are parked—it should be a welcoming place where neighbors can gather, learn, have fun, and work together to make Ketchikan safer.

Today was a perfect example of that as we hosted the first of what we hope will become an annual bicycle helmet drive. The event was held in memory of Tim Lewis and made possible through the cooperation of the Ketchikan Wellness Coalition and PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center.

More than 100 bicycle helmets were placed in the hands—and properly fitted on the heads—of children throughout our community. Our bicycle obstacle course was a huge success, giving young riders a chance to practice their skills while learning some important lessons about bicycle safety. We also served more than 100 hamburgers and hot dogs, because every good safety lesson is a little easier to remember with lunch!

As a reminder, helmets are not just for children. Every rider should wear a properly fitted helmet on every ride, even if they are only going a short distance. Make sure the helmet sits level and low on the forehead, the side straps form a “V” around each ear, and the chin strap is snug enough that only one or two fingers fit underneath it. Drivers should also slow down, stay alert, and give bicyclists plenty of room.

Thank you to our community partners, volunteers, families, and everyone who joined us. It was a wonderful day of safety, food, fun, and community—all while honoring the memory of Tim Lewis.

We’re already looking forward to next year! 🚒🚲

09/11/2026

25 Years — We Will Never Forget 🇺🇸

Today, members of public safety and our community gathered at Ketchikan Fire Department Station 2 for our annual remembrance of the tragedies of September 11, 2001.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

We gathered to honor the 343 FDNY firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice that day, along with all those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93.

Twenty-five years later, the sacrifice continues.

In the years since September 11th, hundreds more firefighters and other responders who worked at Ground Zero have died from cancers, respiratory illnesses, and other service-connected diseases resulting from their work in the rescue, recovery, and cleanup efforts. The number of FDNY members who have died from World Trade Center-related illnesses has now surpassed the 343 firefighters lost on September 11th itself.

They went to the pile searching for their brothers, sisters, and fellow Americans. For many, that service ultimately cost them their lives as well.

Today, we remember all of them.

We also extend a heartfelt thank-you to the Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC) for bringing Indian tacos for our firefighters and staff to enjoy at lunch following today's remembrance. We greatly appreciate your kindness and support.

Twenty-five years have passed, but our commitment remains the same:

We will remember. We will honor. We will never forget.

🇺🇸 9.11.01 🇺🇸

09/10/2026

🚲 THIS SUNDAY — LET’S RIDE, KETCHIKAN! 🚲

Join us at Ketchikan Fire Station 1 this Sunday, September 13, from 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. for our Community Bike Helmet Drive in honor of Tim Lewis. ❤️

We’ll have FREE youth bike helmets in a variety of sizes, proper helmet fitting, bike safety and injury-prevention education, and a bike obstacle course for the kids. Bring your bikes and scooters and come have some fun!

🌭 And because it wouldn’t be a KFD event without food, we’ll also have FREE hamburgers and hot dogs! 🍔

No rain excuses—we’re Ketchikan. 🌧️😄 Grab the kids, grab the bikes, and come spend Sunday with us at Station 1!

Safe Kids. Stronger Communities. Brighter Tomorrows. 🚒❤️🚲