Firefighting worldwide

This article discusses national trends and protocol in firefighting. As firefighting has a rich history throughout the world, traditions in this profession vary widely from country to country.

Australia
In Australia, fire services are state/territory organisations.

In several states, there are three principal firefighting organisations. One is salaried and (primarily) handles urban areas one is (primarily) volunteer and (primarily) handles rural areas and the other is government managed public land (mainly forests and plantations).

In New South Wales:
 * New South Wales Fire Brigades
 * Rural Fire Service

In South Australia
 * Country Fire Service
 * Metropolitan Fire Service

In Victoria:
 * Country Fire Authority
 * Metropolitan Fire Brigade
 * Department of Sustainability & Enviornment

In Western Australia, FESA is the overarching body. The fire services consist of:
 * Career Fire and Rescue Service - salaried staff. Abbreviated to FRS or CFRS.
 * Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service. Abbreviated to VFRS.
 * Volunteer Bush Fire Service. Abbreviated to BFS.
 * Volunteer Fire Service - VFRS and BFS combined and abbreviated to VFS.
 * Volunteer Emergency Service Brigades - VFRS, BFS, State Emergency Service and/or Volunteer Marine Rescue. Abbreviated to VES and previously called FESA units.

FESA funds the CFRS and VFRS vehicles, stations, equipment and training. Local government funds the others. Money for local government is sourced through the Emergency Services Levy.

Canada
Large cities and most towns have full-time fire departments and firefighters. Smaller towns and other municipalities employ part-time volunteer firefighters. All municipal fire departments are publicly operated. Private companies do operate for fire protection on private property. Airport fire departments are operated by local airport authorities. The Department of National Defence has its own firefighters on Canadian Forces bases. Some provinces have firefighting crews to handle forest fires.

Chile
In Chile, firefighters are called "Bomberos". They are volunteers, which means they finance the acquisition, maintenance and operation of their buildings and equipment (including firetrucks) rather than rely upon government allocations. All the officers are democratically elected by the volunteers. The government does not finance specialization courses for firefighters. Instead, they have to pay for it on their own. 'Bomberos' is the name given for the firefighters in most Spanish speaking countries.

Founded in 1851, Valparaíso's Fire Department is the oldest. Following are the Santiago Fire Department established in 1863. Now all cities have a Fire Department each of which has its own officers and companies.

Many of the companies were founded by resident members of European colonies such as the Germans, British, Spanish, French and Italians.

       

Finland
Finnish firefighters (palomiehet) are organised into professional, half-ordinary and voluntary fire brigades. Professional firefighters in Finland graduate from one of the two firefighting schools in Finland. Firefighters in half-ordinary and voluntary fire brigades are trained volunteers.

There are approximately 85,000 emergency missions a year in Finland, of which fires account for 18%. According to the Ministry of the Interior, Finnish fire brigades extinguish around 12,000 fires every year. Voluntary fire brigades have a remarkable role in the fire rescue service and cover a large part of Finland's area.

France
French firefighters are called Sapeurs-Pompiers, and reflecting the rural nature of much of the country (wide areas with low density of population), the Volunteer Fire brigade (SPV, sapeur-pompier volontaire), with over 190,000 firefighters is the largest firefighting force in France. In addition to being called out from work to attend an incident, they may be on standby at firestations outside their working hours; the intervention and attending hours are paid by the session. The volunteer fire brigade is also a way to promote the culture of civil defense and of solidarity amongst the population. The Professional Fire Brigade (SPP, sapeur-pompier professionnel) numbers over 30,000 firefighters, employed by the départements and working in shifts. In some towns there is a mixture of professionals and volunteers, in others only one or the other.

In Paris and Marseille, the fire brigades are made up of military personnel, but under the control of the Ministry of the Interior in a similar way to the Gendarmes. The Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP) has around 7,000 firefighters, and the Marseille Marine Fire Battalion (BMPM) has over 2,000.

French firefighters tackle over 3.6 million incidents each year:
 * 10% fires,
 * 10% traffic accidents (freeing the casualties and prehospital care as first responders),
 * 59% other help to people (mainly prehospital care as first responders),
 * 21% other incidents (gas escapes, stuck elevators, etc).

With the SAMU (French EMS), they are the backbone of the French civil defense.

Germany
German fire brigades (Feuerwehr) are organized on a town/village basis, with each town having at least one brigade. In Germany there are about 25,000 local brigades - 24,000 volunteer fire brigades (Freiwillige Feuerwehr), 800 private fire brigades with public accreditation (Werkfeuerwehr), which mostly protect large industrial complexes or airports, many private fire brigades with no public accreditation (Betriebsfeuerwehr), and 100 public fire brigades (Berufsfeuerwehr) compulsory by law for large towns and cities. However, public brigades are often supported by and cooperate with volunteer brigades. Some volunteer brigades also have a small core of full-time firefighters paid by local community funds. Volunteer fire brigades are usually structured in three brigade categories (Grundausstattung, Stützpunktfeuerwehren, Schwerpunktfeuerwehren) depending on size and level of equipment. Some German fire brigades not only have firefighters, but also ambulance crews. They are estimated to have a total of 1,300,000 active members.

Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Fire Services Department (HKFSD) not only has firefighters, but ambulance crews. As of 14 May 2005, there are 8,675 uniformed personnel (including ambulancemen/ambulancewomen) and 676 civilian members.

The head of HKFSD is called the Director but not the Commissioner. Assisted by the Deputy Director, the Director of the HKFSD is the head of three Operational Fire Commands: Hong Kong, Kowloon and N.T. (i.e. The three Districts). Each of the Commands is under the control of the Chief Fire Officer(CFO). In reality, there is one additional Command: The Heartquarters(HQ), which is under control of the CFO(HQ).

See here for more information.

Hungary
Some 7000 firemen serve in Hungary. Most are professional municipal firemen who are paid from month to month for their services. They generally work 24/48-hour shifts, but in Budapest the schedule has been changed to 24/72. Because working hours have been reduced, there is now a considerable increase of firefighters in the country. The second largest number of firemen can be found in the volunteer fire brigades. In Hungary, unlike other countries, volunteer fire brigades are common organisations established by a local government and a firemen's association. Otherwise, public corporations handle firefighting. Firefighting by public corporations has become more common, but that does not constitute true volunteerism. The firemen's associations constitute the third largest number and they consider themselves the real volunteers. The firemen's associations are qualified under the law as social organisations and in this sense they do not belong to the fire brigades' corporations, although their role is increasingly more important in assurance of local fire safety. The association life, affected by the extreme individualizing of Hungarian society, ever weakens. That must be said of the firefighters of an establishment. These units may be employed fulltime or parttime. Their regulation and order of duty (in case of full-time employed) is according to the professional municipal firemen and the level of safety more specialized to the characteristics of the establishment. One of the biggest establishment fire brigade units in the country, world-famous through its firefighting practices, is the FER TV association, operated and sustained by MOL Co. petrol industry in Százhalombatta.

India
In India municipalities are bound by law to have a fire brigade and participate in a regional fire service. Each city has its own fire brigade. All the industrial corporations also have their own firefighting service. Each airport and seaport has its own firefighting units. The main functions of firefighting service in India are provision of fire protection and of services during emergencies, such as building collapses, drowning cases, gas leakage, oil spillage, road and rail accidents, bird and animal rescues, fallen trees, appropriate action during natural calamities, and providing consultancy in implementing fire protection and fire safety in industries and high rise buildings and other buildings having special fire risks, etc.

Japan
Japan's first fire service was founded in 1629 during the Edo era, and was called Hikeshi (Japanese: 火消し). During the Meiji Period, when Japan opened its doors to the West, the Hikeshi was merged into the police department. During this time period, pumps were imported and domestically produced, and modern firefighting strategies were introduced. In 1948, after World War II, a municipality fire service system was established.

Today, fire services are organized on a city/town/village basis. There are 894 fire headquarters (Japanese: 消防本部) and 3,598 volunteer fire corps (Japanese: 消防団). These have a total of 155,000 active career firefighters and 21,000 vehicles with 4,800 fire houses; 920,000 volunteer firefighters share an additional 51,000 trucks.

An interesting fact is that Firefighters at this time were the only people legally allowed to have tattoos. This is because if anything happened to them during a fire, the tattoo on their body would still be recognizable.

The Netherlands
In The Netherlands municipalities are bound by law to have a fire brigade and participate in a regional fire service. The local brigade is responsible for responding to all incidents; the regional fire service provides a control centre and operates the special vehicles. There are 25 "safety Regions". These regions' boundaries are the same for fire, police and ambulance service and most regions have a combined control centre. The regions are self-contained and can cope with most incidents, in extreme circumstances other regions will provide assistance. All emergency services rely on a single modern digital national communications network based on the Tetra standard. This makes mutual assistance between regions simple to coordinate. Unlike some other countries the ambulance service is completely separated from the fire service, although the control centre is usually shared.

About 75% of all firefighters are volunteers, the rest are professional firefighters.

The appearance of emergency vehicles is standardized in order to keep them optimally recognisable for other road users. The basic first response unit is an engine manned by a crew of six, a commander, a driver, an attack-team and a water supply team. Aerial ladder or tower trucks are dispatched when needed. Because it is impractical to build trucks to carry all the possible types, all regional fire services across the nation use a standardized type of containers. These containers are transported by special trucks. The containers are built for specific purposes. There are containers with command and control, hydraulic submersible pumps (3000 litres per minute), hoseline (up to 3 km of 150-mm hose), watertank, foamtank, decontamination, Hazmat, breathing apparatus, technical rescue, etc.

New Zealand
In New Zealand, fire protection services are overseen by the New Zealand Fire Service Commission. The Commission ensures coverage through all jurisidictions nationwide and reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Fire Protection for urban areas is provided by the New Zealand Fire Service. This nationwide organisation was established by the Fire Service Act 1975 from the various City/Regional/District urban fire brigades in existence at the time. The Fire Service Act nationalised the service and provided the statutory authority required to fight and prevent fire and to respond to other emergencies, including hazardous substance incidents and motor-vehicle collisions.

The NZFS has a significant role in Urban Search and Rescue and contributes key resources to New Zealand's three USAR teams, based in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch. They also provide first-response medical services as a backup to local Ambulance Services (especially in rural areas) and members of the Fire Police often assist the Police at emergency scenes.

In rural areas the National Rural Fire Authority is responsible for providing fire response, as covered by the Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977. Rural Fire Brigades are operated by City and District Councils, where each District appoints a Rural Fire Officer who reports to the National Rural Fire Officer, who reports to the NZFSC.

Other participants in the New Zealand Fire Service Commission are the New Zealand Defence Force (responsible for fires on Military land) and the Department of Conservation (Responsible for fires in National Parks). Privately owned forestry areas are responsible for providing their own firefighting means.

There is much cooperation between the various firefighting resources in New Zealand, but it is recognised that current legislation is not very flexible - there are loopholes in the areas of funding and legal liability, among others. The Department of Internal Affairs is currently in the process of reviewing legislation for Fire and Rescue services in New Zealand, with a view to rewriting both the Fire Service Act and the Forest and Rural Fires Act.

Specialist forest fire fighters from New Zealand are often requested to provide assistance at wildfire events in Australia and the United States, where their skills in incident management are utilised within the Incident Command System.

Panama
The idea for a volunteer fire brigade in Panama began in the 1870's and was officially inaugurated on November 28th 1887. Paid firefighters did not appear until May 1st 1909. Fire protection services are divided into regional zones each with its own independent institution. They are overseen by a council of zone directors for the fire departments of the entire country. Zone 1 encompasses Panama City and its suburbs. It has about 300 permanent, paid firefighters and twice as many volunteers.

Singapore
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (abbreviation: SCDF; Chinese: 新加坡民防部队) is the main agency in charge of the provision of emergency services in the Republic of Singapore during peacetime and emergency.

A uniformed organization under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the SCDF provides ambulance, firefighting and emergency response services in Singapore. It also plays a major role in the Republic's disaster relief operations.

Sri Lanka
The fire brigades in Sri Lanka are based in large cities such as Colombo, Kandy, etc. These units come under the control of each municipal council. Some towns have smaller units.

All major airports and harbors maintain their own fire brigades with specialized units and training.

Spain
Fire brigades in Spain are different in each autonomous community with the exception of Barcelona and Madrid which have their own brigades. The Fire Brigade of Valencia is famous for having created an NGO called Bomberos Sin Fronteras (Firefighters Without Borders) which helps in any natural disaster that could happen anywhere in the world.

United Kingdom
Fire and rescue services (FRS) in England are organised on a metropolitan or county basis, mainly owing to the reorganisation of the counties in 1974. In Scotland and Wales they are on a regional basis, with eight and three FRS respectively. Northern Ireland has a single brigade, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. The term fire brigade is largely historical with only a few FRS, including the London Fire Brigade keeping it in use. The gradual change to the term fire and rescue service has been reinforced by new legislation including the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 which mostly applies to England and Wales. The equivalent legislation in Scotland is the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005. In rural areas, there are often fire stations manned by part-time retained firefighters. In addition there are a number of independent fire services, such as the Peterborough volunteers, the Downe House School brigade and those run by large industrial concerns. As well as responding to emergencies, UK FRS also have a legal obligation by various acts of parliament covering different parts of the UK, to respond to any emergency, which can pose a threat to life, and the environment. Dealing with Urban Search and Rescue incidents was incorporated into English law in 2007, FRS are required by law to deal with An emergency involving the collapse of a building or other structure..

United States
U.S. firefighters work under the auspices of fire departments (also called fire protection districts, fire divisions, fire companies, fire bureaus, and fire-rescue). These departments are generally organized as local or county government subsidiaries, special-purpose district entities or not-for-profit corporations. They may be funded by the parent government, through millage, fees for services, fundraising or charitable contributions. Some state governments and the federal government operate fire departments to protect their wildlands, e.g., California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), New Jersey Forest Fire Service, USDA Forest Service – Fire and Aviation Management (see also Smokejumper). Many military installations, major airports and large industrial facilities also operate their own fire departments.

A small number of U.S. fire departments are privatized, that is, operated by for-profit corporations on behalf of public entities. Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio is among the largest public entities protected by privatized fire departments.

Most larger urban areas have career firefighters. Most rural areas have volunteer or paid on-call firefighters. Smaller towns and suburban areas may have either. 74% of career firefighters are in departments that protect 25,000 or more people. 95% of volunteer firefighters are in departments that protect fewer than 25,000 people and more than half of these and are in small, rural departments protecting fewer than 2,500 people. Departments range in size from a handful of firefighters to over 11,400 sworn firefighters and 4,600 additional personnel in the New York City Fire Department.

As of 2006, there were 1,140,900 firefighters in the United States.¹ Of these, 28% are career and 72% are volunteer. These firefighters operate out of 30,035 fire departments. Career firefighters represent 13% of all departments but protect 62% of the U.S. population. Meanwhile 87% of fire departments are volunteer or mostly volunteer and protect 38% of the population. Source: U.S. Fire Administration and National Fire Protection Association

U.S. fire departments are usually structured in a paramilitary manner. Firefighters are sworn, uniformed members of their departments. Rank-and-file firefighters are equivalent to enlisted personnel; supervisory firefighters are command officers with ranks such as Lieutenant, Captain, Battalion Chief, Deputy Chief and Chief. Fire departments, especially larger ones, may also be organized into military-style echelons, such as companies, battalions and divisions. Fire departments may also have unsworn or non-uniformed members in non-firefighting capacities such as administration and civilian oversight, e.g., a board of commissioners. While adhering to a paramilitary command structure, most fire departments operate on a much less formal basis than the military.

Firefighting in the United States is becoming more of a profession than it once was. Historically, especially in smaller departments, little formal training of firefighters was required. Now, most states require both career and volunteer firefighters to complete a certificate program at a fire academy. Associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in firefighting disciplines are available at colleges and universities. Such advanced training is becoming a de facto prerequisite for command in larger departments. The U.S. Fire Administration operates the National Fire Academy, which also provides specialized firefighter training.


 * 1) This does not include firefighters who work for the state or federal government or in private fire departments.

Venezuela
In Venezuela, there are several types of fire brigades, which are often divided by jurisdiction. The two main types of fire brigades here are State or Municipal brigades, with many volunteer units existing as well. One of the most important paid fire departments in Venezuela is the Bomberos Metropolitanos de Caracas (Caracas Metropolitan Firefighters).

A fourth type, the University brigade, takes care of any emergency situation on a university campus. These brigades are a rapidly growing trend in Venezuela. An example of such a force is Cuerpo de Bomberos Universitarios de la Universidad Central de Venezuela (Venezuela Central University's Firefighter Brigade), which has more than 40 years of service and combined experience. There are new institutions growing in other universities, such as the Cuerpo de Bomberos Voluntarios de la Universidad Simón Bolívar (Simón Bolívar University's Volunteer Firefighter Brigade).