Canton Fire Department / Innes Hose Company Incorporated, as it is known today, was formed in 1882. It was formed from what was 4 separate fire departments known as Canton Hook and Ladder, Belmar Hose Co., Independent Hose Co., and Innes Hose Co. Over the last 100 plus years we have grown to what we have today as Canton Fire Department/ Innes Hose Co. owning a fleet of 7 pieces of specialized equipment along with land and Buildings located in both the boro and the township. In 2004 we split away from Canton Borough and became one independent agency for better availability of funds and a more manageable department. We are supported by donations from our tax payers, several fund raisers and the 5 Township and 2 boroughs (Canton Boro, Alba Boro, Canton Twp, Leroy Twp, McNett Twp, Ward Twp, and Union Twp) providing tax dollars from an area that covers 198.6 square miles of coverage area. Our membership includes approx. 150 members with about 35 being active.

Canton Fire Department runs approx. 400-500 Fire/Rescue/QR related calls per year. Our department started assisting Western EMS in 2001 by performing QRS service to our fire district, this will added to our call volume by approx. 150 additional calls per year. We currently have about 15 First Responders or EMTs that perform this service along with the rest of our members assisting with equipment response to the scene. Our coverage area has 2 elderly housing buildings, 1 Low income Housing unit, 4 manufacturing plants that utilize these alarms. Our district includes several major roadways such as Rt 414, Rt 14, and Rt 154.

We have 5 different categories of membership, which are, Active Firefighters (necessary to attend 25% of a each class of all held), Active Member (necessary to attend 10% of all activities), Social Member (no requirements) Honorary Member (Someone that performs special activities for us on a regular basis) and a Service Member (any person active in the Armed Services).