Watauga County Fire Marshal and Emergency Management

The Watauga County Fire Marshal/Emergency Management Office is located in the Watauga County Law Enforcement Center at 184 Hodges Gap Road. Normal business hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

This office has many roles in the emergency services of Watauga County. Please check back often for regular updates this site. We are in the process and enhancing this site to offer an interactive site for visitors.

Emergency Management

The Emergency Management Office coordinates resources for emergency services in Watauga County. This office also conducts searches for missing persons, handles hazardous materials incidents, conducts emergency preparedness programs/training, and acts as liaison for Watauga County to the State Division of Emergency Management during times of disaster. In addition to the response phase the Emergency Management Office is responsbile for plans pertaining to disasters and emergency response. The Office of Emergency Management is responsible for all phases of an emergency: preparedness, mitigation response, and recovery.

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Fire Marshal

Application for Fire Code Inspection

The Fire Marshal Office conducts fire investigations of all structure fires in Watauga County, conducts fire inspections under Volume 5 of the N. C. State Building Code, provides training through fire prevention programs, and serves as staff for the Watauga County Fire Commission.

Fire protection is provided by 13 fire departments in Watauga County. The Fire Marshal/Emergency Management Coordinator for Watauga County works with all departments. Of these 13 departments, Boone, Blowing Rock, and Seven Devils are municipal fire departments and must meet the rigid requirements of the Insurance Services Office Class 5 and Class 6. Watauga County provides an allotment to each fire department for basic expenses. The municipal fire departments provide a higher level of protection using municipal tax funds as an additional revenue source. All fire departments in Watauga County have a fire tax supported district.

Rural fire departments in the County include Beaver Dam, Beech Mountain, Cove Creek, Deep Gap, Foscoe, Meat Camp, Shawneehaw, Stewart Simmons, Todd, and Zionville. Although each property in the County is served by one of the fire departments, properties within one of the towns or within five miles of one of the rural fire departments receive a lower fire insurance premium than properties more distant.

Each fire department is represented on the Watauga County Fire Commission establishing coordinated procedures and training programs. Mutual aid arrangements exist between all the departments on a county-wide network. Frequent training programs through the N. C. Department of Insurance and the community college system result in a high level of fire protection. All firefighters in Watauga County are volunteers, with the exception of the municipalities of Boone, Blowing Rock, and Seven Devils which have volunteer and paid firefighters. All the rural fire departments have First Responders who provide emergency services.