[2] With over 1,800 members, the SAFD is responsible for a population of over 1.4 million people spread across 408 square miles (1,060 km2).

[3] The San Antonio Fire Department is an internationally accredited agency with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) and holds an Insurance Services Office (ISO) Public Protection Classification Class 1 rating.

The San Antonio Fire Department is also involved heavily with the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Texas Task Force 1, abbreviated TX-TF1, to function as one of two state urban search and rescue (USAR) teams in the State of Texas.

1 received its official charter from state naming it “The Fire Company of the City of San Antonio."

2 was chartered by the state on February 11, 1860 and was the first fire company in the city to receive a horse dawn steamer.

By 1873, the city funded horses and paid drivers to haul the steam pumper to the scene of fires.

In the spring of 1878, the city officially founded the San Antonio Volunteer Fire Department.

[6] As the city of San Antonio continued to expand and grow, so did the volunteer fire companies.

The alarm office's register that received the signals from the actual fireboxes would remain "still" when someone reported a fire or emergency via telephone.The term is still used today out of tradition.

A Box Alarm is the standard protocol response for reported fires in high occupancy types, i.e. a hospital, nursing home, commercial building, strip mall, theater or other potentially high risk structure.

The number "11" after the level of alarm is tradition of the bell and register system striking 11 blows onto the bell in the firehouse after whatever level of alarm the incident has been upgraded to, followed by the box number, that some have carried over into the modern era to continue the tradition.

January 30, 2019 – Galm Road Rollover – First time low titer O + whole blood (LTOWB) was used successfully for a traumatic arrest in the field.

A Medical Task Force was also dispatched to assist in relocating the dozens of rescued senior citizens.