Volunteer fire department

The first volunteer fire department in Argentina was Bomberos Voluntarios de La Boca (La Boca Volunteer Firemen) 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.

Throughout Australia there are many volunteer firefighting agencies which are set up by the individual states or territories. New South Wales is serviced by two statutory firefighting authorities. These are the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS) 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 grass land, the NSWRFS also serve smaller and regional communities that are not covered by Fire and Rescue NSW. Despite some overlapping in firefighting coverage/resources by both services, the NSWRFS does not provide rescue or HAZMAT services in the State.

In Victoria, there are three main fire fighting organisations, Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board (MFB), Country Fire Authority (CFA) and The Department of Environment, Water, Land, and Planning (DEWLP). The CFA is a volunteer and community based fire and emergency services organisation 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 organised by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) together with Local Councils. DFES operate the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service Brigades (VFRS) and some Bush Fire Service Brigades (BFS), while the remainder of the Bush Fire Service Brigades are trained by DFES, but operated and administrated 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,[3] and 2,000 VFRS Members among 88 Brigades.[4]

In South Australia, there are two legislated fire fighting organisations. The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS) and the South Australian Country Fire Service (SACFS). The SACFS is staffed by approximately 13,500 volunteer fire fighters and around 120 paid employees.[5]

Volunteer fire departments (Freiwillige Feuerwehr) provide the majority (97% of all German fire fighters) of Austria's and Germany's civil protection services, alongside other volunteer organizations like the Germany Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), 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. 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.

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 (population 130,000), 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.[6] 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 which volunteer departments must meet.

Chile is one of the few countries in the world in which all firefighters are unpaid. The local fire departments are part of the National Board of Firefighters (Junta Nacional de Bomberos).

The volunteer fire department of Puistola, Helsinki

In Finland the firefighting in the countryside mostly depends on volunteer fire departments, nearly always with a contract with the regional emergency authorities (or, formerly and in Åland, the municipality). There are volunteer fire departments also in cities, but there with a minor role.

In Indonesia, the city with the largest number of volunteer fire brigades is in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan province. The city is also sometimes nicknamed "kota seribu pemadam kebakaran" (The city with a thousand of fire brigades). Access of water is also relatively easy as rivers are easily founded at the city to be the source of water for fire fighting. The need of more fire brigades in the city emerged when people realized the very frequent incidents of fire, especially structure fire because houses are traditionally made out of wood, and also hence the hot temperature near the equator, fire incidents are common, thus many people made and become volunteer fire brigades to assist the existing government fire brigade (the Dinas Pemadam Kebakaran). These volunteer fire brigades are paid Rp 0.000,- but in some cases, some people give them money for charitable reasons.

The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) in the Republic of Ireland is a branch of Civil Defence Ireland. The service is usually only called upon for flooding incidents, emergency water supply and large-scale incidents where the resources of front-line fire brigades are stretched.[7]

In Nicaragua there are three different groups of firefighters, one ruled by the Direccion General de Bomberos 18 fire station which has government support and the other two Federación de Cuerpos de Bomberos de Nicaragua Benemeritos with 8 fire station and Asociacion civil Cuerpo de BOMBEROS Voluntarios de Nicaragua 24 fire station are volunteers firefighters around the Country.

Peru's bomberos are all unpaid volunteers that put out fires, clear up hazardous materials, aid in natural disasters, and bring the sick to hospitals, in a 150-year tradition. Citizens apply to enter a training program they must pay for with their own money. There they'll learn how to put out fires, provide first aid and use specialized equipment. If they complete the program they enter a probation period where they have to prove they are capable of dealing with real-life emergencies.

In the Philippines, there are volunteers and government employed Chinese-Filipino and Filipinos firefighters. This combination had a long history which started as life in the Philippines became urbanized. As the country is slowly developing, the need for basic government services became a necessity, aside from the policemen and the military, firefighters were also important to ensure public safety. Eventually, the Filipino government hired local Filipinos to serve as firefighters. During the 60‟s and 70‟s the frequent occurrence of unexpected fire events triggered the formation of volunteer fire brigades, originally created to help fellow Chinese-Filipino from fires and other disasters. From the 1960‟s to the 1970‟s, groups of civic-minded Chinese-Filipino established their own fire prevention associations, usually segregated only by geographic location. Since then, the volunteer brigades improved, its members started becoming more proficient in firefighting and rescue operations, upgrading their skills and capabilities through self-education, training and actual experience (Businessworl, 1997). Eventually, Filipinos also started volunteering for these brigades, that presently, there is a good mixture of Chinese-Filipino and Filipinos in volunteer brigades around the country. Volunteer firefighters are ordinary people who are willing to give a portion of their time to the community (Brevern, 1988)

State Fire Service (Polish: Państwowa Straż Pożarna) is a professional firefighting service that covers whole territory from their stations in cities and towns. In rural areas however, local inhabitants may create a Voluntary Fire Service (Ochotnicza Straż Pożarna) under proper law. Such volunteer fire service may receive a financial help from the government for the equipment and staff training. In certain areas of Poland almost every village has a volunteer fire service because members of such enjoy high respect in their community. On the other hand, volunteer fire service is fully integrated with the emergency system. Any call to fire emergency number is routed to the nearest State Fire Service station which firstly deploys the nearest volunteer fire service and later aids them with the state forces.

In the United Kingdom, it is standard for smaller, rural stations to be manned by retained firefighters, who are part-time firefighters who receive some pay for responding and for spending long periods of time on call. A few fire services have volunteer units, including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service[8] and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. The only autonomous volunteer fire service is the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade,[9] which are contracted to provide operations for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. Other voluntary fire brigades existed in the past, but no others have existed since the disbanding of the Auxiliary Fire Service in 1968.

A volunteer firefighter stands to the edge of a road.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, 70 percent of firefighters in the United States are volunteers.[10][11] The Volunteer Firefighter Alliance represents Volunteer Firefighters across the U.S. The National Volunteer Fire Council represents fire and emergency services on a national level, providing advocacy, information, resources, and programs to support volunteer first responders. The NVFC includes 49 state-based firefighter associations, such as the Firemen's Association of the State of New York (FASNY), which provides information, education, and training for the volunteer fire and emergency medical services throughout New York State.

Volunteer firefighters go through some or all of the same training that career personnel do, although the training varies among jurisdictions. When volunteers join a department, they often enroll in firefighting classes and other certifications that teach them how to become a volunteer firefighter. Examples of these certifications include Firefighter I, Firefighter II, S-130/S-190, Emergency Medical Responder, and Emergency Medical Technician. Some departments also require recruits to complete a specified amount of in-house training. During this time, often called the probationary period, the recruit is known as a probationary firefighter, or 'probie'. Once the probationary period is completed, the member is eligible to become a fully qualified firefighter.

In the United States, the Department of Labor classifies volunteer firefighters as firefighters that receive no compensation or nominal fees up to 20% of the compensation a full-time firefighter would receive in the same capacity.[12] The DOL allows volunteer firefighters to receive benefits such as worker's compensation, health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, pension plans, length of service awards, and property tax relief. DOL-defined volunteer firefighters may be paid nominal fees on a per call basis, per shift basis, or various service requirements, but they may not be compensated based on productivity or with an hourly wage.

The terms 'part paid' and 'paid on-call' refer to firefighters who are receiving some compensation, but less than the compensation a full-time firefighter would receive. The terms may refer to volunteer firefighters who do not qualify as volunteers under the United States Department of Labor. These individuals may also volunteer time for training, public education, fund-raising, and other non-emergency department-related activities.

In late 19th and early 20th century American slang, volunteer firefighters were referred to as 'vamps', although the origin of this is obscure.[13]