Volunteer fire department
A volunteer fire department is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained firefighters are expected to be on call to respond to emergency calls for long periods of time, and are summoned to the fire station when their services are needed. They are also expected to attend other non-emergency duties as well.
Volunteer firefighters contrast with paid firefighters who work full or part-time and receive a salary. Some volunteer firefighters may be part of a combination fire department that employs both full-time and volunteer firefighters. On-call firefighters who receive some pay for their work are known as call firefighters in the United States, and retained firefighters in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
International
The earliest firefighting organizations were made up of volunteers. The first large organized force of firefighters was the Corps of Vigiles, established in ancient Rome in 6 AD.Argentina
The first volunteer fire department in Argentina was Bomberos Voluntarios de La Boca founded on June 2, 1884, by Italian immigrant Tomas Liberti in the neighborhood of La Boca, Buenos Aires. June 2 is the Day of Volunteer Firefighters. The Argentina Federation of Volunteer Firefighters was founded in 1954. In 2018, 80% of the country is covered by volunteers.Australia
Throughout Australia, there are many volunteer firefighting agencies that are set up by individual states or territories. New South Wales is serviced by two statutory firefighting authorities. These are the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW. Fire and Rescue NSW has firefighting and rescue responsibilities for the major cities, metropolitan areas, and several other towns in NSW. It also has the responsibility for all land-based HAZMAT incidents as well as inland waterway-based HAZMAT incidents. The NSWRFS is the volunteer firefighting service in NSW and consists of over 70,000 volunteers and has responsibility for over 90% of the land area in NSW. Although most of this is bush and grassland, the NSWRFS also serves smaller and regional communities that are not covered by Fire and Rescue NSW.In Victoria, there are three main fire fighting organizations, Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, Country Fire Authority and The Department of Environment, Water, Land, and Planning. The CFA is a volunteer and community-based fire and emergency services organization that is made up of around 61,000 members. Of these members, some 59,000 are volunteers. Their roles range from fire, rescue, HAZMAT, to non-operational support roles.
In Western Australia, fire fighting is organized by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services together with Local Councils. DFES operates the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service Brigades and some Bush Fire Service Brigades, while the remainder of the Bush Fire Service Brigades is trained by DFES, but operated and administered by the Council of the associated area. VFRS Brigades are generally more involved in Structural Fire fighting, Asset Protection, and Road Crash Rescue depending on their location, whereas the BFS Brigades are generally more involved in Wildfire Fighting. In Western Australia, there is an estimated 31,000 BFS Members among 585 Brigades, and 2,000 VFRS Members among 88 Brigades.
In South Australia, there are two legislated fire fighting organizations. The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service and the South Australian Country Fire Service. The SACFS is staffed by approximately 13,500 volunteer firefighters and around 120 paid employees.
Austria and Germany
Volunteer fire departments provide the majority of Austria's and Germany's civil protection services, alongside other volunteer organizations like the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief, voluntary ambulance services and emergency medical or rescue services like German Red Cross or Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe. In most rural fire departments, the staff consists only of volunteers. The members of these departments are usually on-call 24/7 and working in other professions.The alarm can be performed by different alarm systems, such as by sirens or pager sometimes combined with an app on the mobile phone. In Germany, the alarm via radio pager is on the frequencies of the BOS radio. In Austria, the fire departments have their own frequencies.
In medium-sized cities and communities, fire departments will often be partially staffed by career firefighters. They ensure the rapid availability of some of the department's fire apparatus, with the remaining apparatus staffed and brought to the scene of the emergency by volunteers as soon as they arrive at the department.
Larger cities, typically those with 100,000 inhabitants or more, will operate fire departments staffed entirely by career firefighters. However, they also typically have several volunteer fire departments, who are called upon in case of larger emergencies.
Municipalities are the support of volunteer fire departments. Additional funding may include, for example, contributions from support organizations, donations made in fundraising, or income from various events.
Canada
While wholly volunteer fire departments are mostly found in rural and remote areas of Canada, "composite" departments composed of both career and volunteer or "call" firefighters can be found in more urbanized municipalities. For example, in the city of Kingston Ontario, of the ten stations operated by the Kingston Fire and Rescue Service, three are staffed with career firefighters, two are composite and five are wholly volunteer. There are an estimated 127,000 volunteer firefighters across the country. Most urban and larger fire services began as volunteer service and evolved into full-time members. Volunteer departments are necessary for areas that cannot afford to staff a full-time department. Unlike the United States where volunteer fire companies may operate independently of local government with limited tax base support, or as semi-private organizations, in Canada volunteer fire departments are normally operated by municipalities or by counties. Provinces establish standards of equipment and training that volunteer departments must meet.The Upper Hammonds Plains Volunteer Fire Department was the first all-Black volunteer fire department in Canada, established in 1966 and officially incorporated in the 1970s, operating within Halifax County, Nova Scotia.
Chile
is one of the few countries in the world in which all firefighters are unpaid. They share common values and a rich history of serving their country.The country is subdivided into regions, provinces, and communes, local fire corps or departments serve across single or multiple communes. As of today, 314 fire corps are currently operating. All fire corps are part of the Junta Nacional de Bomberos.
Croatia
There are 1,768 volunteer fire departments in Croatia, as well as 33 units of what is officially called "volunteer fire department in economy".Some Croatian volunteer fire departments include:
The first volunteer fire team in Estonia was created in 1788 by the Brotherhood of Blackheads, the first organization of volunteer firemen in 1862, also being the first such organization in Imperial Russia. Volunteer fire organizations existed throughout all political systems in Estonia since then, although the cause saw significant setbacks in the political purges following Soviet occupation. Volunteer fire brigades were the backbone of the rescue services before re-independence, owning around 3/4ths of rescue equipment, personnel, and also handling around 3/4ths of all fires, primarily in rural areas. In 2010, the nation's volunteer fire brigades were united under an umbrella organization, the Rescue Union, also including chimney sweeping, water rescue and similar organizations.
In 2021, there were 117 volunteer fire brigades with a total of 2 319 volunteer firemen. Volunteer fire brigades are placed in rural areas or the satellite areas of cities and towns. On smaller islands such as Naissaar or Abruka, the volunteer fire brigades are the only rescue brigades. In a few cases, volunteer brigades are attached to national ones. Due to being placed in primarily rural areas, they are often the first to arrive at the scene.
Volunteer organizations are funded through support via the national or local municipal budget, companies and donations.
Finland
In Finland, the firefighting in the countryside mostly depends on volunteer fire departments, nearly always with a contract with the regional emergency authorities. There are also volunteer fire departments in cities, but they have a minor role.There are also junior firefighters in the volunteer fire departments. They are usually 10–17 years old but some fire departments also have "early juniors" that are 7–9 years old.