When the Greensboro City Council passed a new city budget last month, the big story was sticker shock.
An 11th-hour bill from the North Carolina General Assembly, signed into law days before the deadline to pass municipal budgets, put a one-year freeze on property revaluations. That left both the city and Guilford County with less revenue than anticipated, and having to rework complex budgets that took months to prepare. Both the city and county responded by cutting millions from their proposed budgets while also increasing their property tax rates.
“We really are looking at unprecedented times of not knowing what’s going to happen at the state and how we will balance the budget,” said Councilmember Cecile Crawford, who represents District 2. “I hope the community will give us grace.”
“There’s going to be some pain,” said At-Large Councilmember Hugh Holston. “And that pain is probably going to be spread amongst more than we possibly think, when it comes to actually paying the taxes. But if we don’t have that pain now, we’re going to have even more pain down the road.”
That’s because Greensboro is growing, said both council members and City Manager Nathaniel “Trey” Davis, and the city needs to invest in services and infrastructure as it prepares for even more growth driven by—among other developments—Toyota battery plant, JetZero’s $4.3 billion aerospace facility, and FAA approvals for HondaJet.
A key focus in spending toward that growth has been public safety—including 30 new police officers in the new budget and a significant investment in the Greensboro Fire Department.
“Firefighters recognize residents have differing opinions about the proposed tax increase in this budget,” said David Coker, president of the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro, in remarks before the council in support of the budget. “Those are profoundly important discussions. But firefighters’ responsibility, we feel, is to speak about fire protection and emergency medical care in our community.”
With that in mind, we’re taking a By The Numbers look at the current state of the fire department in Greensboro, its work and plans for the future.
(Numbers sourced from the Greensboro Fire Department’s 2024-2025 Annual Report, the most recent available.)
27
Fire stations in operation across Greensboro. Of those, Station 7 on Gatewood Avenue is the busiest, handling 4,612 calls last year.
11
The number of new stations the city plans to build by 2040.
4
The number of minutes after a call that a unit from the fire department should arrive at the scene of a fire, under the department’s own standard. That time needs to be met at least 90 percent of the time, according to the standard.
613
Number of fire personnel. That includes 588 sworn firefighters and 25 civilian employees of the department.
$7.2 million
Estimated value of property lost to fire last year.
$222 million
Estimated value of property saved by the Greensboro Fire Department over the same period.
24,813
Medical calls to which the Greensboro Fire Department responded.
189
Fires the department investigated.
15,199
Fire hydrants tested.
61
Firefighters and other department personnel deployed to Western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene in 2024. They responded to 22 emergency calls there, including three structure fires. Fire inspectors also evaluated nearly 1,000 structures as part of their response work.
