Our History
Prior to 1986, fire protection in Walton County was handled by the municipal fire departments in Loganville, Monroe, Social Circle, Walnut Grove, Jersey and Oasis. Areas such as Good Hope, Gratis and Bold Springs were far from those city departments and it was determined that a county-wide fire department was needed. Walton County Fire Department was born of this need and Station #7 (Good Hope) was opened that year consisting of an Engine, a Tanker and 20 volunteer firemen.
1987 saw the hiring of Donnie McCoullough as the first Fire Chief along with 6 paid fire fighters to man WCFD units 24/7 at Monroe’s station. The later 80’s saw the addition of about 100 new volunteer fire fighters for new stations opened in Bold Springs (8), Gratis (9), Dally (10) Whatley (11) and Youth (12). Each station had a used Engine and a converted Tanker. Volunteers raised funds for better equipment including brush and rescue trucks and tools, via fund raisers including chicken BBQ’s and car washes.
In 1991, Station 1 in Walker Park was completed, providing a new station for the career fire fighters who were, at the time, operating out of an RV parked in Monroe. Fire head quarters found a new home in the new station as well. The 90’s also saw the addition of Station 2 east of Loganville, Station 13 west of Loganville, and the Walnut Grove Fire Department merging with WCFD in 1995 ultimately becoming WCFD Station 3. By the mid 2000’s, Station 4 was added and each station was manned 24/7 and an on duty Battalion Chief was added.
2006 saw the name of the department change to Walton County Fire Rescue due to the increasing demands for services other than just fire responses such as Emergency Medical Care, Auto Extrication, and Hazardous Material response, just to name a few.
In early 2011, Station 2 was relocated from Loganville to Between heralding a new chapter of the history of Walton County Fire Rescue. Today, WCFR continues to look to the future and expand our abilities to better serve the citizens and visitors to Walton County.
In 2017, Kevin Haney was named Fire Chief and currently leads a 12 station department consisting of xx full-time and xx part-time fire fighters. The department utilizes a compliment of Class A Engines, (3) Class A “super tender” water trucks, a 75 ft Ladder Truck and several other specialty units.