| 2025 Incidents | |
| June Total | 29 |
| Structure Fires | 12 |
| Multiple Alarms | 0 |
| Commercial Water | 1 |
| Residential Water | 0 |
| No Duty | 16 |
| Vent/Fans/Ems/Other | 0 |
| 2025 YTD Totals 189 | |
Welcome to the Rochester Protectives!
The Rochester Protectives are one of the few remaining 100% Volunteer Fire Salvage Company’s in the U.S. We provide both fire and non-fire salvage services to the City of Rochester, NY.
The Protectives provide assistance to the City of Rochester Firefighters, some of which include:
- Covering or removing property
- Recovering family valuables
- Providing ventilation through the use of smoke-ejecting fans
- Set-up of emergency scene lighting
- Pumping out flooded basements
- Securing broken windows and doors
Our goals have remained the same since our inception and are paramount to our operations. The Protectives motto, We Strive to Save, is our commitment to the residents of Rochester, NY.
The command structure includes a Chief, Deputy Chief, Captain, and four lieutenants. Members volunteer a minimum of 12 hours per week, on one assigned night from 6pm to 6am.
Defying the odds: Black female twins find their place in the mostly male Rochester Fire Department!!
Kania Williams and her twin sister Kalia Williams are both volunteering with the Rochester Fire Departments Protectives as a path to become full time firefighters.(photo by Max Schulte)
Rochester Fire Chief Stefano Napolitano was beaming.
He was in his office overlooking downtown Rochester staring at a photo of two Black women, identical twin sisters, clad in firefighting gear aboard a Rochester Protectives truck.
They were smiling back at him.
“Those are the people I’m looking for!” Napolitano said. “That’s the million-dollar smile. That’s (saying), ‘This is where I belong.’”
The twins, 22-year-old Kalia and Kania Williams, are not firefighters. Not yet anyway.
Rather, they are members of the Rochester Protectives, a volunteer force that works alongside firefighters to safeguard and salvage property, who are waiting to take their physical fitness test to determine their admission to the Fire Department.
