The Black Hawk Fire Department (BHVFD) began in 1953 in the area known as Black Hawk, the northwest edge of Rapid City, South Dakota. In the early days of BHVFD times were hard . The founding members of the department felt that there was a need for fire protection in this area. Many of the trucks and most of the equipment was donated and or fabricated by the members of the department because there wasn't the money to purchase the things needed to fight the fires. The department relied heavily on the community for donations as well as volunteers. The departments first building was located on Custer Street., which was sold in 1992 after completion of our new fire station on Peaceful Pines Dr. In the early eighties, this area started to go through some major changes there was a lot of development which included a number of sub-divisions and housing developments were started. Some of these developers donated land and built small buildings that were used by the department as sub-stations. After our present station was built in 1992 the decision to house all of our apparatus in one locations, so control of all of the sub-stations back to the homeowners associations in those area's (High Meadows, Northdale, and Wooodland Hills). In the early 80's Black Hawk Fire Protection District was formed and response boundaries were established. A few years later the fire district started to impose a tax on the taxpayers in the district because there wasn't the funds from donations to provided adequate fire protections to the district. By imposing the tax the department was able to grow and expand with the area.
To this day the fire department and the fire district board strive to keep the tax burden light by assessing the lightest levy possible and yet keep the department moving in a forward manner.  This area has changed dramatically since those early days and so has the fire service. Along with the changes on the fire side of the department, the department has assumed other responsibilities such as medical first responders, initial hazardous materials response, and Skywarn for the National Weather Service in Rapid City just to name a few. This department answers approximately 400-500 calls per year as well as numerous hours of training, meetings, and in-house work hours. All of this is accomplished from one fire station, 9 fire apparatus, and approximately 30 members. It takes a great deal of work and dedication to be a volunteer fire fighter, which is why we honor an old members of the volunteer fire service, take the time to sit and listen to the old war stories they may have you will never know how much you will learn form their years and experience.