Understanding Excelsior Fire District (EXFD) response times requires the evaluation of call processing, turnout and travel times. The ability the EXFD to promptly deploy an effective firefighting force is critical to realizing a positive outcome at emergency incidents. The problem is that the EXFD does not meet the established response times to emergency incidents as established by the EXFD Board which has adversely affected the operations of the fire district. The purpose of the research was to identify why established response times are not consistently met and to provide recommendations for standards of measure and improvement in response times.Six questions were asked: 1) What are the established response standards at the national, state and district? 2) How are benchmark response times for like agencies being accomplished? 3) How do the response times for the two fire stations differ? 4) What are the current call processing, turnout and travel times for the EXFD for 2009? 5) To what extent do technical problems contribute to turnout times for the EXFD? 6) To what extent do behavioral factors contribute to turnout times for the EXFD? A descriptive research method was utilized. The 2009 EXFD call data was analyzed for call processing, turnout and travel times. One survey was sent to regional fire departments and another survey was sent to the members of EXFD. The average call processing time studied was 155 s (SD=.0006 s, Mdn=145 s). Average turnout time studied was 182 s (SD=128 s, Mdn=146 s).Average travel time studied was 268 s (SD=192 s, Mdn=202 s). No relationship was discovered between call processing times and types of calls. The EXFD firefighter's personal perceptions in the survey did not match actual performance. It was recommended that EXFD and the regional fire departments explore implementing an education campaign on the behavioral factors of call processing, turnout and travel times. Additional recommendations included standardized data collection and adopting an updated overall response time standard to include call processing, turnout and travel times.