The Mountain View Fire Department was started on April 1, 1874, when fifty of the town's civic‑minded men sat around a pot‑bellied stove and a cracker barrel in Rogers & Rogers Department Store and formed the first organized fire brigade for Mountain View. They called it "Mountain View Station Hook & Ladder Co. No. 1."

In the spring of 1928, the citizens living on the outskirts of Mountain View wanted fire protection also. They had an election to create a new fire district. On July 11, 1928 the city council passed a resolution to create the Fremont Fire District.

A new headquarters station was completed in 1953 at Villa and Franklin Streets. This station replaced the station “Firehouse at Waterworks” which was dedicated in 1924. Our newest “Headquarters Station” on Shoreline Blvd. dedicated in 1995 has the 1953 fire bell mounted out front on the sign. This fire bell was brought back from Oakland in 1905 by Jake Mockbee to be used as the City’s first alarm bell.

Fire Station 2 at Cuesta and Grant was dedicated January 1, 1959. Fire Station 3 at Rengstorff and Montecito was opened on September 1961. Fire Station 4 on Whisman Road opened on March 1968. Fire Station 5 is our newest station, houses the only fire pole in the City and it was dedicated on December 15, 2011.

The volunteer firefighters in Mountain View were disbanded in 1964. Today, Mountain View has a fully paid professional fire department with over 86 personnel.