Fire Department Media and Public Relations Information

The Columbia Fire Department is the primary source of fire related information in the City of Columbia. Like the news media, the fire department operates in a 24/7, 365 days a year environment. 

During normal business hours, the Columbia Fire Department offers a variety of services to citizens and traditional media outlets.  If you are a reporter or have a general inquiry please contact the Columbia Fire Department Public Information Officer by email at Fire-pio@CoMo.gov or by phone at .      The Columbia Fire Department also has Public Information Officers working on each of our three shifts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.  PIO’s in our Emergency Services Division give our media partners more access to emergency service related information around the clock.  Department policy questions, long term planning, budget related questions, etc. should continue to be directed to Assistant Fire Chief Brad Fraizer.   

In addition to their PIO responsibilities, the on-shift Public Information Officers serve as Incident Safety Officers on larger emergency scenes.  They also assist with new recruit training as well as on-shift and department wide training as members of our Training Division.  

Our Public Information Officers are Captain Jeffrey Coffman – shift 1, Captain Tracy Gray – shift 2 and Captain Jesse Cash – shift 3.  They can be reached by cell phone at 573.303.6943opens phone dialer.  They receive emails at [email protected]create new email.

Press releases for events the Columbia Fire Department responds to and on camera interviews for those events will be published / made available in a timely manner during normal business hours Monday through Friday.  For events occurring after hours, media information will be released no later than 9 a.m. the next business day.  

Media information for larger emergency events will be released as information becomes available regardless of time of day or day of the week.    

Ways to stay connected

Social media is a good way to follow the Columbia Fire Department. We recommend following our Facebook and Twitter pages for up to date information on our activities and operations.  

Sunshine requests

Sunshine (records) requests are made by completing a records request form.opens PDF file

Media guide

The Columbia Fire Department created a Media Guide to assist members of the media in finding available resources, complying with public disclosure laws, and protecting the integrity of on-going fire investigations. You can download a copy of our Media Guideopens PDF file .