Northwest Fire District was formed in 1983 by residents of the northwest metropolitan Tucson area to ensure that the community received consistent, high-quality emergency services at a reasonable cost. Since its inception, the District has provided increasingly higher levels of fire protection and emergency medical services to a rapidly growing population. The District currently provides emergency and community services to 110,000 residents and 3,300 commercial occupancies over a 140 square mile area. Ten strategically located stations are staffed 365 days a year with 192 firefighters that are Paramedics or Emergency Medical Technicians. Despite explosive growth, the District's ratio of Paramedics to residents remains one of the best in the state at 1:9000.