With the attainment of Statehood on 1st December 1963, the Fire Brigade was set up in the late 1960s with the Nomenclature - Nagaland Fire Services organization functioning directly under the control of Nagaland Police as a Branch. Due to its pure technical profession, the Nagaland Fire Services organization was bifurcated from the Police Department on 01/04/1990 vide Government order NO.AR-12/2/87 DT.06/04/1990 and separate Directorate was created with a total strength of 302 personnel as:

• Additional SP - 1
• Sub Inspector - 9
• Additional Sub Inspector - 33
• Havildar - 16
• Driver Constable - 56
• Fireman - 162
• NCE - 22
• Ministerial Staff - 3

During the inception of the Fire Service as a separate Department in 1990, only 7 Fire Stations were operational in the district headquarter of Kohima, Dimapur, Mokokchung, Tuensang, Wokha, Mon, Zunheboto. Fire Station Phek was added in 2008 and therefore only 8 Fire Stations were operational till 2010.

The role of Nagaland Fire & Emergency Services is to attend to all fire incidents, Special Service Calls, other emergencies such as building collapse, road accidents, drowning cases, natural disasters such as landslides, flash floods, and other natural calamities. In order to minimize the recurrence of outbreaks of fire incidents, and to ensure that effective Fire Prevention is adopted, Nagaland Fire & Emergency Service is regularly conducting Fire Safety Audits of all types of buildings, Inspections of shopping malls, high-rise buildings, industries, Govt. offices, public buildings etc, creating awareness on fire safety, and enforcing the inbuilt fire protection arrangements for various types of constructions in line with National Building Code 2016 (Part IV).

The vision of the Fire & Emergency Service is to ensure that the State of Nagaland is a Fire-free State for which stress is being given for the implementation of the fire safety measures in all parts of the state including those places which are vulnerable to fire or which are considered as fire risk areas.

Present Activities

The technical survey for the requirement of Fire Station for the whole State of Nagaland was carried out in the year 2012 by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. According to this survey, the State of Nagaland should have a minimum of 48 Stations as per the topographical, demographic aspects, population and administrative setup and in pursuance to this survey 6 (six) more Fire Stations were added in districts and sub-division within 7 years (2011-2018). The newly added Fire Stations are:

• Kohima North Fire Station
• Kiphire Fire Station (District headquarters)
• Longleng Fire Station (District Headquarters)
• Peren Fire Station (District Headquarters)
• Chumukedima (Sub-Division)
• Tuli Fire Station (Sub-Division)

Therefore, the total number of Fire Stations in the State at present is 14 (fourteen). Two more new Fire Stations - Jalukie and Dimapur (MDSC) will be inaugurated shortly. Construction of another five new Fire Stations - Khuzama (Nagaland-Manipur border), Pfutsero (Phek District), Mokokchung (north), Tuensang and Chiephobozou are under progress. At present, the Department has a sanction strength of 710 staff.

However, the Department still felt short of 27 Fire Stations. The Department has been striving its best to add more Fire Stations at strategic/designated places to save lives and properties. The Department is also on the process of setting up Regional Emergency Management Training Institute (REMTI) at Chiechama under Kohima District. For this 58.43 acres of land has been already acquired with a vision to set up firefighting and disaster management Training for the whole North Eastern Region as well as the Country. The State Government have already sent the proposal for setting up REMTI to the Government of India and it is under active consideration.