A firefighter is a first responder trained in firefighting,primarily to control and extinguish fires that threaten life and property,as well as to rescue persons from confinement or dangerous situations. Male firefighters are sometimes referred to as firemen.
Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety,security,and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies,while others deal with ad hoc emergencies as part of their normal responsibilities. Many of these agencies engage in community awareness and prevention programs to help the public avoid,detect,and report emergencies effectively. Emergency services are often considered first responders,and typically have dedicated emergency vehicles.
The New York City Fire Department,officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City,serving all five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for fire suppression and fire prevention,and is a major provider of EMS services in New York City. Beyond fire suppression and EMS,the FDNY is responsible for a broad range of services,including technical rescue,CBRN defense,and structural collapse response and analysis. The FDNY is equipped with a wide variety of general-purpose and specialized fire apparatus to serve its varied missions.
In the United States,a department of public safety is a state or local government agency which often has a broad portfolio of responsibilities,which may include some or all of the following:
Firefighting jargon includes a diverse lexicon of both common and idiosyncratic terms. One problem that exists in trying to create a list such as this is that much of the terminology used by a particular department is specifically defined in their particular standing operating procedures,such that two departments may have completely different terms for the same thing. For example,depending on whom one asks,a safety team may be referred to as a standby,a RIT or RIG or RIC,or a FAST. Furthermore,a department may change a definition within its SOP,such that one year it may be RIT,and the next RIG or RIC.
Toronto Fire Services (TFS),commonly called Toronto Fire,provides fire protection,technical rescue services,hazardous materials response,and first responder emergency medical assistance in Toronto,Ontario,Canada. Toronto Fire Services is currently the largest municipal fire department in Canada.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is a uniformed organisation in Singapore under the Ministry of Home Affairs that provides emergency services such as firefighting,technical rescue,and emergency medical services,and coordinates national civil defence programme.
Fire and Rescue New South Wales,an agency of the Government of New South Wales,Australia,is responsible for firefighting,rescue and HazMat services in the major cities,metropolitan areas and towns across New South Wales. Fire and Rescue NSW is the fourth largest urban fire service in the world,with over 6,800 firefighters serving at 335 fire stations throughout the state,supported by 465 administrative and trades staff and 5,700 community fire unit volunteers. FRNSW are also the busiest fire service in Australia,attending over 124,000 incidents a year.
As firefighting has a rich history throughout the world,traditions in this profession vary widely from country to country.
Tayside Fire and Rescue Service was,between 1975 and 2013,the statutory fire and rescue service for the area of Tayside in Scotland. It was amalgamated into the single Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in 2013.
Essentials of Fire Fighting is a fire service training manual produced by Fire Protection Publications (FPP) and the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA). Fire Protection Publications is a department of Oklahoma State University College of Engineering,Architecture,and Technology (CEAT) in Stillwater,Oklahoma. This manual is used by fire service training agencies and departments around the world to train personnel to become firefighters. The Essentials of Fire Fighting is the required training manual used in countless local fire departments and state/provincial training agencies in every region of the United States and Canada. Since the release of the first edition of this manual in 1978,more than 2.5 million copies of the Essentials of Fire Fighting have been distributed to the fire service.
The Boston Fire Department provides fire services and first responder emergency medical services to the city of Boston,Massachusetts. It also responds to such incidents as motor vehicle accidents,hazardous material spills,utility mishaps,floods,explosions,and construction accidents among others.
The Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security (OKOHS) is an agency of State of Oklahoma that is responsible for reducing the State's vulnerability to acts of terrorism and for minimizing and recovering the damage caused by terrorist attacks. OKOHS is a division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.
The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) is the only U.S. federal facility chartered to provide comprehensive preparedness training programs to the nation's emergency response providers. The facility,located in Calhoun County,Alabama,provides all-hazards training to approximately 50,000 emergency responders annually,or a total of 1.1 million responders since its inception in 1998. Trainees hail from state,local,tribal,territorial,and federal governments,as well as private entities. Training for state,local,tribal,and territorial governments are entirely funded by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS),whereas responders for foreign federal governments and private entities may be trained on a fee-for-service basis.
Fire services in the United Kingdom use a variety of fire appliances,which perform a wide range of general and specialised roles and fit into several distinct categories. Contemporary fire appliances carry a multitude of equipment and firefighting media to deal with different types of emergencies ranging from fires,rescues,vehicle extrication,floods,salvage,casualty and trauma care.
The St. Louis Fire Department provides emergency medical services,fire cause determination,fire prevention,fire suppression,hazardous materials mitigation,and rescue services to the city of St. Louis,Missouri. The department is also the second oldest professional and fully paid fire department in the United States. The STLFD is responsible for 69.0 square miles (179 km2) and has a population of approximately 294,890 with a daytime population of over 2 million.
A mass casualty incident describes an incident in which emergency medical services resources,such as personnel and equipment,are overwhelmed by the number and severity of casualties. For example,an incident where a two-person crew is responding to a motor vehicle collision with three severely injured people could be considered a mass casualty incident. The general public more commonly recognizes events such as building collapses,train and bus collisions,plane crashes,earthquakes and other large-scale emergencies as mass casualty incidents. Events such as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995,the September 11 attacks in 2001,and the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 are well-publicized examples of mass casualty incidents. The most common types of MCIs are generally caused by terrorism,mass-transportation accidents,fires or natural disasters. A multiple casualty incident is one in which there are multiple casualties. The key difference from a mass casualty incident is that in a multiple casualty incident the resources available are sufficient to manage the needs of the victims. The issue of resource availability is therefore critical to the understanding of these concepts. One crosses over from a multiple to a mass casualty incident when resources are exceeded and the systems are overwhelmed.
Firefighting in the United States dates back to the earliest European colonies in the Americas. Early firefighters were simply community members who would respond to neighborhood fires with buckets. The first dedicated volunteer fire brigade was established in 1736 in Philadelphia. These volunteer companies were often paid by insurance companies in return for protecting their clients.
Operations Plus WMD is a training level in dealing with hazardous materials.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the national fire and rescue service of Scotland. It was formed by the merger of eight regional fire services in the country on 1 April 2013. It thus became the largest fire brigade in the United Kingdom,surpassing the London Fire Brigade.
