Tampa Emergency Services: 911, Fire Rescue and Emergency Management

Emergency calls in Tampa arrive on the Police/Fire 911 system, where the Tampa Fire Rescue Communications section takes them and sends out personnel and equipment (Tampa Fire Rescue).

Tampa Fire Rescue lists the Fire Communications Manager at (813) 232-6802 for public record requests for 9-1-1 recordings, and (813) 232-6805 for after hours non-emergency concerns (Tampa Fire Rescue contacts). Police matters that are not emergencies go to the Tampa Police non-emergency line, (813) 231-6130; the department also takes online messages, which it says are not monitored 24/7 (Tampa Police Department). The same 231-6130 number is listed by the city for noise complaints (City of Tampa Emergency Contacts).

Residents and visitors in Hillsborough County, Tampa included, can text 911 when a voice call is not possible: the county lists callers who are Deaf or hard of hearing, callers for whom speaking would be dangerous and callers without phone reception. The message goes to 911 with no spaces or dashes, a dispatcher replies, and the county asks for an exact location, no slang, no photos, emojis or videos and no group texts. Hillsborough County warns that delivery is not guaranteed on weak cellular service and that apps such as WhatsApp or Viber may not support it; the service may also not be available in neighboring counties or cities (Hillsborough County Text to 911).

Tampa Fire Rescue, established May 10, 1895, handles fire suppression, emergency medical care, hazardous materials, aircraft rescue and marine firefighting from 23 fire stations and two rescue stations across Tampa and MacDill Air Force Base (About Tampa Fire Rescue).

The department is split into five divisions: Operations, Rescue, Communications, Prevention and Administrative. Operations firefighters give fire suppression and advanced life support, rescue transport crews run the ALS transport vehicles, and the Fire Marshal's office, a division within Tampa Fire Rescue, investigates fire causes, reviews building codes and enforces fire and life-safety codes (About Tampa Fire Rescue). Tampa Fire Rescue holds accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (Tampa Fire Rescue).

The city's own counts differ. The FY2024 budget narrative describes 744 Fire Rescue personnel in the Operations Division and 24 fire stations, counting Tampa International Airport and a contractual EMS response for MacDill Air Force Base; the same budget put $4.3 million toward Fire Station No 9 renovations and $1.2 million toward land and expansion at Fire Station No 6 (City of Tampa FY2024 Fire budget). The about page, updated July 13, 2026, gives 23 fire stations plus two rescue stations, and neither page explains the gap (About Tampa Fire Rescue).

For planning, the department splits Tampa into 18 communities, from Ybor City, Tampa Heights and Old Seminole Heights to Ballast Point, Port Tampa and Interbay, New Tampa North and Tampa Palms, and tracks fire calls, working fires and medical calls in each (Tampa Fire Rescue Metrics).

Tampa Fire Rescue transports patients in its own Advanced Life Support transport vehicles, based at fire stations throughout the city, and its EMS bills can be paid through the Digitech online system (Tampa Fire Rescue Metrics; Tampa Fire Rescue).

The metrics page charts transports by rescue vehicle for 2024 and 2025 under unit numbers R001, R005, R009, R014, R018, R021 and R053, and describes the crews as giving basic and advanced life support care and transport for the seriously ill and injured (Tampa Fire Rescue Metrics). The Rescue Division answers at (813) 274-7005 (Tampa Fire Rescue contacts).

Tampa Fire Rescue says invoices dating back to June 1, 2021 can be paid through Digitech by American Express, Mastercard, Discover or Visa, with enrollment at tampa.gov/pay-ambulance and questions to 855-378-5794, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Tampa Fire Rescue). Fire incident reports and medical records are requested through the department's records request service listed on the same page.

For a Tampa problem that is urgent but not life-threatening, the city publishes separate lines by type: police at (813) 231-6130, street flooding at 813-274-3101, water emergencies at 813-274-8811 and sewer backups at 813-247-3451 (Tampa Police; City of Tampa Emergency Phone Numbers).

The Emergency Phone Numbers page was last updated on October 1, 2023, and two city pages disagree on sewage calls: the Emergency Contacts page, updated October 7, 2024, lists sewage backups or overflows at (813) 898-1420 with (813) 247-3451 after hours, while the phone numbers page gives only 813-247-3451 (Emergency Phone Numbers; Emergency Contacts). The phone numbers page also lists 833-872-4636 for hurricane information and three different fallen tree numbers depending on the hour, ending with 813-274-3101 from midnight to 8:00 AM (Emergency Phone Numbers). Downed TECO power lines go to 911 or 877-588-1010 (Emergency Contacts).

Existing commercial occupancies in Tampa require routine fire code compliance inspections, with fees based on square footage starting at $75 for up to 5,000 square feet (Tampa Fire Code Compliance Inspection Fees).

The schedule says a satisfactory re-inspection carries no added charge and that a fourth re-inspection doubles the previous fee and goes to the Code Review Board; emergency vehicle access evaluations cost $70. The fee table itself is marked Updated October 2016, so the Fire Marshal at (813) 274-7000 is the office to confirm a current amount before budgeting (Inspection Fees; Fire Rescue contacts).

Fire Marshal user permits cover assembly, exhibits, hazardous installations, temporary tents, open flame and pyrotechnics. Tampa Fire Rescue public education visits schools, neighborhood groups and businesses, gives station tours and teaches drowning prevention, elderly fall prevention, high-rise fire education and fire extinguisher use; activities must be scheduled one month in advance (Tampa Fire Rescue services). The scheduling number on that page, (813) 274-8241, differs from the Public Education Office listing of (813) 274-7002 on the contact page, which is the more recently updated of the two (June 17, 2025 against October 1, 2023) (Fire Rescue contacts).

Tampa runs its own Office of Emergency Management inside Tampa Fire Rescue, while the Hillsborough County Office of Emergency Management runs the County Emergency Operations Center (City of Tampa Office of Emergency Management; Hillsborough County Emergency Management).

The city office is at 808 E. Zack Street, phone 813-274-7011, and the county office answers at (813) 272-6600 (Tampa Office of Emergency Management; Hillsborough County Emergency Management).

To get Alert Tampa messages, a phone owner texts TAMPAREADY to 888-777 (TAMPALISTA to the same number gives Spanish alerts); voicemail and email alerts need an online registration. Printed copies of the city's Hurricane Preparedness Guide are requested by email from [email protected] (Tampa Office of Emergency Management). Hillsborough County runs a separate system, HCFL Alert, and its Office of Emergency Management also coordinates the county's Citizen Emergency Response Teams and Citizen Corps (Hillsborough County Emergency Management).

Residents who want to help in a disaster can join Tampa CERT after the CERT Basic Training, which the city page describes as 8 sessions on Wednesday nights from 6:00 to 9:00 pm covering fire extinguisher use, CPR, amateur radio, triage, search and rescue and incident command; questions go to [email protected] or 813-274-1285 (Tampa CERT). The format can change: for August 2026 the city scheduled the course as a free three-day class at the Fair Oaks Complex Community Center, 3400 East Louisiana Avenue in East Tampa, on August 14 from 6 to 9 p.m. and August 15 and 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with attendance on all three days required (City of Tampa CERT 3-Day Training).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Tampa Fire Rescue, Tampa Police, Tampa emergency management and Hillsborough County emergency management web pages, including each page's own update date.