Neighbors who answer the tone
A paid-on-call department: local residents who train, carry a pager, and turn out when the call comes in.
Station 200 · paid-on-call fire and rescue
Seventy-seven square miles of lakeshore, covered by neighbors.
Shelby-Benona Fire Department answers the calls across two townships, two villages, and about seven miles of Lake Michigan beachfront.
77square miles covered
~7miles of shoreline
~7,000year-round residents
About 77 square miles. Two townships, two villages, and roughly seven miles of Lake Michigan beachfront, all covered by one paid-on-call crew.
Stylized illustration of the coverage area, not a survey-accurate map. Coverage figures are from public records.
We come to you.
The department runs a home fire-safety program that puts working smoke detectors in local homes, installed on-site by the crew. It is prevention that happens before the 911 call, at no cost to the resident.
Smoke detectors the department installed in local homes in 2024. If your alarms are old or missing, this is the program to ask about.
You reach outEmail or message the department to ask for a home check.
The crew comes to the homeA "we come to you" visit, not a trip you have to make.
Detectors get installedWorking smoke detectors placed where they protect people.
The lakeshore gets safer151 installed in 2024, home by home.
How the department is built.
A paid-on-call model, shared by two townships, close to the community it protects.
One crew, shared coverage
Shelby Township and Benona Township, plus the villages of Shelby and New Era, served by a single station.
A two-township board
Directed by a five-member board drawn from the two townships, keeping decisions close to home.
Paid-on-call means the crew is your neighbors.
A department like this runs on local people who are willing to train and turn out. If you live on the lakeshore and want to be one of them, this is where you start.
- Live in or near the district
- Train with the crew, no experience required to ask
- Answer fire and rescue calls across 77 square miles
- Help run home-safety visits like the smoke-detector program
Reach the department.
For non-emergencies, home-safety requests, or questions about serving, use the channels below.
If it is an emergency
911
Fire, medical, or rescue emergencies always go to 911 first. The channels on this page are for everything that is not an emergency.