Junior firefighting is a youth activity mostly organized by fire departments. It serves as a means of personal development for the youths, as well as a recruiting pool for the fire departments.
Junior firefighter programs give young people the chance to learn about local fire, rescue, and emergency medical services response organizations in a safe, controlled, educational, and fun way while providing departments with an excellent recruitment mechanism. Reaching out to people when they are young has long-range effects, and encouraging youth to take part in the emergency services is extremely beneficial to local communities and departments. Benefits of junior firefighter programs include:
Allowing youth to gain insight and interest in becoming long-term members of the emergency services
Increasing awareness among youth about volunteering and supporting the fire and emergency services
Providing departments with additional help in accomplishing non-firefighting or non-emergency tasks
Leadership development for America's youth, who are tomorrow's leaders
Educating parents and mentors on the importance of encouraging volunteerism
Training activities allow the teenagers to gain firefighting and emergency service experience. Typical activities practicing firefighting techniques, communication using radios, practicing first aid, maintaining firefighting gear, firefighting drills, and responding to emergency calls.
National groups
In Australia, state based volunteer bush firefighting organizations run cadet programs.
In the Austrian fire departments the Feuerwehrjugend acts as a reservoir for young members as voluntary firefighters. Boys and girls can begin from an age of 8 or 10 years (depending on federal state) and change with 15 years in the active service.
In Chile, the cadet brigades is for the youth from 12 to 18 years (depending on the company's general regulations), they are taught discipline, how to use firefighter items, history of firefighters, first aid, traditions, etc. When they are 18 years old they pass to volunteer firemen without any type of process depending on the department, they get their own uniform and are generally led by a lieutenant instructor, and the rest of the instruction team, and formed by Cadets. Most companies in Chile have their own cadet brigade.
In the Netherlands, the Jeugdbrandweer is for the youth from 12 to 18 years. Because of insurance problems, members are not allowed to stay a junior firefighter after their 18th birthday. They are, however, not allowed to become actual firefighters before they are 21 years old. Because officially the Dutch Junior Fire Department is a recruitment program, this has been criticized. Though many fire stations individually organise an agreement so that junior firemen can stay (for example, as an instructor) between their 18th and 21st birthday. Dutch Junior Fire Departments play matches and tournaments against other junior firefighter sections from other fire stations throughout the entire country. It's a tradition to camp with the junior firefighter sections in the summer. This happens with other junior firefighter sections, and sometimes even with junior firefighter sections from different countries.
Belgium has also a Jeugdbrandweer that is similar to the Jeugdbrandweer from the Netherlands
In Germany, the German Youth Fire Brigade is for youths from 10 to 18 years. In most German states, they are not allowed to take part in real emergencies until their 16th or 18th birthday, when they may join the regular fire department. Junior firefighters in Germany and Austria are part of the regular fire departments, but they form a distinct group within their department.
In Finland, the different volunteer fire departments can choose to start up an youth unit for 10 to 18 year olds and some even have younger doing whats called "varhaisnuoret" they are usually few years younger. The stations do training of the basic skills once a week or once every two weeks. They also host camps for the youth with international counterparts in Germany. Once a youth fire fighter is 18 he will move up to be a volunteer and if he wants an instructor.
Junior firefighters in Austria during a live exercise
A fire department or fire brigade, also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression services as well as other rescue services.
A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) 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.
Fire police are fire department members who, based upon their jurisdictional authority, receive sworn police powers, special training, and support firefighting efforts at emergency incidents. In addition to securing firefighting equipment, incident and fire scenes, and the station itself, fire police perform traffic and crowd control. In some jurisdictions, fire police are exterior firefighters and may be called upon at fire scenes to perform any of the duties of an interior firefighter except those that require a self-contained breathing apparatus. On occasion, fire police also assist regular police: they perform road closures, traffic control, crowd control at public events, missing persons searches, parade details, salvage, security, and other miscellaneous tasks as requested.
The fire service in France is organised into local fire services which mostly cover the Departments of France, with a few exceptions. There are two types of fire service:
The Firefighters Association of the State of New York, more commonly known as FASNY, is an organization whose mission is to educate, serve and support volunteer firefighters in New York State. FASNY was founded in 1872 and its main headquarters are in Albany, New York. Originally known as the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, it changed its name in 2022. FASNY currently has more than 40,000 members. The Firefighters's Association also maintains the FASNY Firemen's Home and the adjacent FASNY Museum of Firefighting in Hudson NY. FASNY provides information, education and training for the volunteer fire and emergency medical services throughout New York State. FASNY strives to recognize the true champions of these services through numerous awards programs. They also recognize educators for their work in fire prevention education. Additionally, FASNY provides legislative representation that monitors and takes action on topics of importance to the services.
The Feuerwehr is a number of German fire departments. The responsible bodies for operating and equipping fire departments are the German communities ("Gemeinden") and cities ("Städte"). By law, they are required to operate fire-fighting forces. In cities, this is usually performed by the Fire Prevention Bureau, one of the higher-ranking authorities.
SMURD is an emergency rescue service based in Romania. SMURD is a structure subordinated to the Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU). The name is the Romanian acronym for "Serviciul Mobil de Urgență, Reanimare și Descarcerare", which means Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication. It was created and has been coordinated since its inception by doctor Raed Arafat. The first SMURD unit was created in Târgu Mureș, a city in the center of Transylvania, in 1990. One of the notable co-founders is a Romanian Firefighter Lt. Col. Mircea Pintilie who coordinated the activity between firebrigades from the three countries, Romania, Norway and Great Britain.
Fire fighting in Finland is regulated by the Ministry of the Interior. Municipalities of Finland can choose whether the fire and rescue services are provided by a professional fire brigade, a half-ordinary fire brigade or a voluntary fire brigade. Half-ordinary and voluntary fire brigades rely on non-professional voluntary fire fighters who have been trained appropriately. The main responsibilities of fire brigades are rescuing people, protecting property and the environment, limiting damage and consequences.
As firefighting has a rich history throughout the world, traditions in this profession vary widely from country to country.
A fire chief or fire commissioner is a top executive rank or commanding officer in a fire department.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to firefighting:
Firefighting has historically been a predominantly male profession throughout the world. However, since the 1970s, women have made inroads in both professional and volunteer fire departments in multiple countries. In modern times, women have served in a variety of fire service roles including as fire chiefs. Nonetheless, they comprise less than 20% of firefighters even in the countries where they are best represented.
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing destructive fires. A firefighter fights these fires with the intent to prevent destruction of life, property and the environment. Firefighting is a highly technical profession, which requires years of training and education in order to become proficient. A fire can rapidly spread and endanger many lives; however, with modern firefighting techniques, catastrophe can usually be avoided. To help prevent fires from starting, a firefighter's duties include public education and conducting fire inspections. Because firefighters are often the first responders to victims in critical conditions, firefighters often also provide basic life support as emergency medical technicians or advanced life support as licensed paramedics. Firefighters make up one of the major emergency services, along with the emergency medical service, the police, and many others.
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.
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) is the leading 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, EMS, and rescue services. Founded in 1976, the NVFC serves as the voice of the volunteer in the national arena and provides tools, resources, programs, and advocacy for first responders across the nation.
The Hellenic Fire Service is the national fire and rescue service of Greece. It is part of the Ministry for Citizen Protection.
Capital City Fire/Rescue (CCFR) provides fire suppression and emergency medical services to the city of Juneau, Alaska, United States.
A compulsory fire service is a mandatory service for the local fire departments in Switzerland in general and in Austria and Germany in exceptional cases as well. Private individuals can be compelled to participate in such a fire service in specific circumstances. In Singapore conscripts are deployed as fire fighters when serving in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
Jeugdbrandweer is a Youth organisation active in the Netherlands and the Flanders region of Belgium across more than 150 fire departments. Young people aged 12 to 18 are acquainted with the work of firefighters. The youngsters are taught the basic skills of firefighting and practice with specialist equipment and materials of the fire service. After the young person becomes is 18, it is possible under certain conditions to join the fire service as a professional firefighter. The Jeugdbrandweer is seen as a good training and recruitment tool for new staff.
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