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 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 (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 grassland, the NSWRFS also serves smaller and regional communities that are not covered by Fire and Rescue NSW.

En Victoria, existen tres organizaciones principales de extinción de incendios: la Junta Metropolitana de Servicios de Bomberos y Emergencias ( MFB ), la Autoridad de Bomberos Rurales ( CFA ) y el Departamento de Medio Ambiente, Agua, Tierras y Planificación ( DEWLP ). La CFA es una organización de servicios de bomberos y emergencias, compuesta por voluntarios y miembros de la comunidad, con aproximadamente 61 000 integrantes. De estos, unos 59 000 son voluntarios. Sus funciones abarcan desde la extinción de incendios y el rescate hasta el manejo de materiales peligrosos (HAZMAT) y funciones de apoyo no operativas.

En Australia Occidental, la lucha contra incendios está organizada por el Departamento de Bomberos y Servicios de Emergencia (DFES) junto con los consejos locales. El DFES gestiona las Brigadas de Bomberos Voluntarios y Rescate (VFRS) y algunas Brigadas de Bomberos Forestales (BFS), mientras que el resto de las Brigadas de Bomberos Forestales reciben formación del DFES, pero son gestionadas y administradas por el consejo del área correspondiente. Las Brigadas VFRS suelen estar más involucradas en la lucha contra incendios estructurales, la protección de activos y el rescate en accidentes de tráfico, según su ubicación, mientras que las Brigadas BFS suelen estar más involucradas en la lucha contra incendios forestales. En Australia Occidental, se estima que hay 31 000 miembros de BFS en 585 brigadas, ^{[ 3 ]} y 2000 miembros de VFRS en 88 brigadas. ^{[ 4 ]}

En Australia Meridional existen dos organizaciones de bomberos reguladas por ley: el Servicio Metropolitano de Bomberos de Australia Meridional (SAMFS) y el Servicio Rural de Bomberos de Australia Meridional (SACFS). El SACFS cuenta con aproximadamente 13 500 bomberos voluntarios y alrededor de 120 empleados remunerados. ^{[ 5 ]}

Los cuerpos de bomberos voluntarios ( Freiwillige Feuerwehr ) proporcionan la mayoría (el 97 % de todos los bomberos alemanes) de los servicios de protección civil de Austria y Alemania , junto con otras organizaciones de voluntarios como la Agencia Federal Alemana de Socorro Técnico (THW) , servicios de ambulancia voluntarios y servicios médicos de emergencia o de rescate como la Cruz Roja Alemana o Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe . En la mayoría de los cuerpos de bomberos rurales, el personal está compuesto exclusivamente por voluntarios. Los miembros de estos cuerpos suelen estar de guardia las 24 horas del día, los 7 días de la semana, y trabajan en otras profesiones.

La alarma puede activarse mediante diferentes sistemas, como sirenas o buscapersonas, a veces combinados con una aplicación móvil. En Alemania, la alarma por radio buscapersonas se transmite en las frecuencias de la red de radio BOS . En Austria, los bomberos tienen sus propias frecuencias.

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 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.^[7]

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 ("comunas"), local fire corps or departments ("Cuerpos de Bomberos") 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 (National Board of Firefighters).^[8]

There are 1,768 volunteer fire departments in Croatia, as well as 33 units of what is officially called "volunteer fire department in economy".^[9]

Some Croatian volunteer fire departments include:

• Zaprešić Volunteer Fire Department

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.^[10] 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.^[11] In 2010, the nation's volunteer fire brigades were united under an umbrella organization, the Rescue Union (Estonian: Päästeliit), also including chimney sweeping, water rescue and similar organizations.^[12]

In 2021, there were 117 volunteer fire brigades (comprising 62% of all fire brigades) with a total of 2 319 volunteer firemen (comprising around half of Estonian rescue personnel). 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.^[13]

Volunteer organizations are funded through support via the national or local municipal budget, companies and donations.^[14]

En Finlandia , la extinción de incendios en las zonas rurales depende principalmente de cuerpos de bomberos voluntarios, casi siempre con un contrato con las autoridades regionales de emergencia (o, antiguamente y en Åland , con el municipio). También existen cuerpos de bomberos voluntarios en las ciudades, pero su papel es secundario.

En los cuerpos de bomberos voluntarios también hay bomberos juveniles . Suelen tener entre 10 y 17 años, pero algunos cuerpos de bomberos también tienen "jóvenes reclutas" de entre 7 y 9 años.

En Francia , el 80% de los bomberos son voluntarios.

En Indonesia , la ciudad con el mayor número de brigadas de bomberos voluntarios es Banjarmasin , en la provincia de Kalimantan del Sur . A esta ciudad también se la conoce como " Kota seribu pemadam kebakaran " (La ciudad de las mil brigadas de bomberos). El acceso al agua es relativamente fácil, ya que en la ciudad se encuentran ríos que sirven como fuente de agua para la extinción de incendios. La necesidad de más brigadas de bomberos surgió cuando la gente se percató de la frecuencia de los incendios, especialmente en edificios, debido a que las casas tradicionalmente se construyen de madera. Debido a las altas temperaturas cerca del ecuador, los incendios son comunes; por lo tanto, muchas personas crearon o se unieron a brigadas de bomberos voluntarios para apoyar a la brigada de bomberos gubernamental existente (Dinas Pemadam Kebakaran ). Estas brigadas de bomberos voluntarios no reciben remuneración , pero en algunos casos, algunas personas les dan dinero con fines benéficos.

En Israel , los bomberos voluntarios trabajan junto a los bomberos profesionales en el Servicio de Bomberos y Rescate de Israel . Los voluntarios adultos trabajan en las estaciones de bomberos, en los mismos vehículos que los bomberos profesionales o en unidades independientes que operan desde su propio camión de bomberos. Los voluntarios jóvenes (de 15 a 18 años) trabajan exclusivamente en las estaciones.

El Servicio Auxiliar de Bomberos (AFS) en Irlanda es una rama de la Defensa Civil de Irlanda . Este servicio generalmente solo se activa en casos de inundaciones, suministro de agua de emergencia e incidentes a gran escala donde los recursos de las brigadas de bomberos de primera línea están sobrecargados. ^{[ 15 ]}

En los Países Bajos, aproximadamente el 80% de los bomberos son voluntarios. Estos bomberos no tienen que permanecer en la estación, sino que pueden ser llamados según un horario preestablecido. Cuando están de guardia, deben poder llegar a la estación en un plazo de 3 minutos. Y aunque son voluntarios, reciben un salario por hora decente, incluso por participar en sesiones de capacitación. ^{[ 16 ]}

In Nicaragua, there are three different groups of firefighters, one commanded by the Direccion General de Bomberos 18 fire station, which has government support; the second is commanded by the Federación de Cuerpos de Bomberos de Nicaragua Benemeritos 8 fire station; the third is commanded by the Asociacion civil Cuerpo de BOMBEROS Voluntarios de Nicaragua 24 fire station.

Peru's bomberos are all unpaid volunteers that extinguish fires, clear up hazardous materials, provide aid and assistance during natural disasters, and transport the sick to hospitals, in a 150-year tradition. Citizens apply to enter a training program they must pay for with their own money. During training sessions, they are taught how to put out fires, provide first aid, and use specialized equipment. Upon successful completion of the program, they enter a probation period where they have to prove they are capable of dealing with real-life emergencies.

Volunteer fire services in the Philippines began during the 1960s, a time when fires were a frequent occurrence. Member proficiency for these services has improved since the 1960s due to self-education, training, and experience.

The State Fire Service (Polish: Państwowa Straż Pożarna) is a professional firefighting service that covers the 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 services may receive financial assistance from the government for the equipment and staff training. In certain areas of Poland, almost every village has a volunteer fire service, because members enjoy high respect in their community. Volunteer fire services are fully integrated with the emergency system. Any call to the fire emergency number is routed to the nearest state fire service station, which first deploys the nearest volunteer fire service, followed by the State Fire Service.

The Firefighting Association of Slovenia is an independent, non-profitable, humanitarian, non-political and the highest form of association of voluntary fire brigades and their associations. It operates on the basis of the Associations law and the Firefighting law. It is a union of all voluntary fire brigades, all voluntary industrial fire brigades and their fire brigades, which are organized at the municipal, inter-municipal and regional level.

The Firefighting Association of Slovenia was founded in 1949 in Ljubljana, as the successor to all previous associations of fire brigade organizations. Since then, it has been performing the duties of the umbrella fire organization in the Republic of Slovenia and has been a member of CTIF since 1992. There are over 165000 members in 1341 volunteer fire brigades.

In the United Kingdom, it is standard for smaller, rural stations to be staffed by retained firefighters, part-time firefighters who are paid for attending incidents and for spending long periods of time on-call known as a retainer fee. A few fire services have volunteer units, including the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, where they only get paid their retainer fee, but are not paid for attending incidents ^[17] The only autonomous volunteer fire service is the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade,^[18] which is 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.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, 54 percent of firefighters in the United States are volunteers.^[19][20] The Volunteer Firefighter Alliance represents Volunteer Firefighters across the U.S. The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) 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 Firefighters 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.

Los bomberos voluntarios reciben parte o la totalidad de la misma formación que el personal profesional, aunque esta varía según la jurisdicción. Al unirse a un departamento, los voluntarios suelen inscribirse en cursos de extinción de incendios y otras certificaciones que les enseñan a ser bomberos voluntarios. Algunos ejemplos de estas certificaciones son Bombero I, Bombero II, S-130/S-190 , Técnico en Emergencias Médicas y Técnico en Emergencias Médicas . Algunos departamentos también exigen que los nuevos bomberos completen un periodo de formación interna. Durante este tiempo, conocido como periodo de prueba, se les denomina bomberos en periodo de prueba o «probie». Una vez finalizado este periodo, pueden optar a ser bomberos titulados.

En Estados Unidos, el Departamento de Trabajo clasifica a los bomberos voluntarios como aquellos que no reciben remuneración o reciben honorarios nominales de hasta el 20 % de la remuneración que recibiría un bombero de tiempo completo en la misma función. ^{[ 21 ]} El Departamento de Trabajo permite que los bomberos voluntarios reciban beneficios como compensación laboral, seguro médico, seguro de vida, seguro por discapacidad, planes de pensiones, premios por antigüedad y desgravación fiscal sobre la propiedad. Los bomberos voluntarios, según la definición del Departamento de Trabajo, pueden recibir honorarios nominales por llamada, por turno o según diversos requisitos de servicio, pero no pueden ser remunerados en función de su productividad ni con un salario por hora.

Los términos «a tiempo parcial» y «a tiempo parcial» se refieren a los bomberos que reciben una compensación, pero inferior a la de un bombero a tiempo completo. También pueden referirse a bomberos voluntarios que no cumplen los requisitos del Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos. Estas personas también pueden dedicar su tiempo como voluntarios a la formación, la educación pública, la recaudación de fondos y otras actividades ajenas al departamento de bomberos.

En la jerga estadounidense de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, a los bomberos voluntarios se les llamaba " vamps ", aunque el origen de este término es incierto. ^{[ 22 ]}

The material and extraordinary training of the Federal Agency for technical Relief (THW) is funded as a federal agency by the federal government of Germany. 99.7755% of the members volunteer their time. German volunteer fire departments generally get the bulk of their funding from the municipality, but also receive money from the state. They also often get money from the community through events and fundraisers.^[23][24]

Operational volunteer fire department members receive some form of training, either in a formal or informal setting, depending on the state and regulatory authority. The level and type of basic and specialty training vary across the country. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has several published standards for firefighter qualifications and training, including Standard for Fire Service Professional Qualifications Accreditation and Certification Systems, and Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications.^[32] These standards apply to both volunteer and career firefighters.

New members are referred to as "recruits," "rookies," "probies" (short for "probationary"), or even "red hats" in some departments that require the recruit to wear special gear or markings (such as a red helmet in some departments) to denote their ranking. Some departments allow (or even require) new recruits to ride along on fire apparatus as observers before undergoing the rigors of further fire training.

Firefighters typically progress through formal Fire Fighter I and Fire Fighter II training in accordance with national standards.

Specialty training can include wildland firefighting, technical rescue, swift water rescue, hazardous materials response, vehicle extrication, FAST team, fire instructor, fire officer, and others.

In order to become an on-call member of a volunteer fire department in Germany, the Truppmann Teil 1 training is required. The Truppmann Teil 1 is a 70-hour training module that covers basic firefighting skills such as responsibilities/duties, hydrants, setting up a hose line, extinguishing, technical assistance, ladder rescue, first aid, and more. This is often followed by the Truppmann Teil 2, which is a continual 2 year period of training (with a minimum of 80 hours) generally provided by the fire department.^[33] Additional training is also available following Truppmann Teil 1, such as radio operator training (Sprechfunkerausbildung) and SCBA training (Atemschutzausbildung), the former taking 16 hours and the latter taking 25 hours. These trainings open up the ability for additional training to take on a leadership role.^[34]