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.
The South Australian Country Fire Service is a volunteer based fire service in the Australian state of South Australia. The CFS has responsibility as the Control Agency for firefighting, rescues and hazardous materials and inland waterways in the country regions of South Australia. Its official mission is "To protect life, property and the environment from fire and other emergencies whilst protecting and supporting our personnel and continuously improving."
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is a volunteer-based firefighting agency and statutory body of the Government of New South Wales.
Mount Riverview is a town off the Great Western Highway about 2 km NE of Blaxland in the Lower Blue Mountains, New South Wales, 70 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD, Australia. At the 2006 census, Mount Riverview had a population of 2,993 people.
NSW Ambulance, previously the Ambulance Service of NSW, is an agency of NSW Health and the statutory provider of pre-hospital emergency care and ambulance services in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) previously known as NSW Fire Brigades (NSWFB), is a agency of the New South Wales Government, Australia. FRNSW is responsible for firefighting, rescue and HAZMAT services in the major cities, metropolitan areas and towns all across the state of 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 the busiest fire service in Australia, attending over 124,000 incidents a year.
Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the available fuel, the local atmospheric conditions, the features of the terrain, and the size of the wildfire. Because of this wildfire suppression in wild land areas usually requires different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated areas. Working in conjunction with specially designed aerial firefighting aircraft, fire engines, tools, firefighting foams, fire retardants, and using various firefighting techniques, wildfire-trained crews work to suppress flames, construct fire lines, and extinguish flames and areas of heat in order to protect resources and natural wilderness. Wildfire suppression also addresses the issues of the wildland–urban interface, where populated areas border with wild land areas.
As firefighting has a rich history throughout the world, traditions in this profession vary widely from country to country.
"Section 44" refers to the New South Wales Rural Fires Act 1997, specifically section 44, Commissioner’s responsibility. Essentially it is used to describe when the Rural Fire Service Commissioner declares a localised "State of Emergency" for a specific district suffering severe fire conditions that cannot be managed without drawing in extensive resources from other areas.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Essex in the east of England, and is one of the largest fire services in the country, covering an area of 1,338 square miles (3,470 km2) and a population of over 1.7 million people.
The 1994 eastern seaboard fires were significant Australian bushfires that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the bushfire season of 1993–1994. Some 20,000 firefighters were deployed against some 800 fires throughout the state, and along the coast and ranges from Batemans Bay in the south to the Queensland border in the north, including populated areas of the city of Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast. The fires caused mass evacuations of many thousands of people, claimed four lives, destroyed some 225 homes and burned out 800,000 hectares of bushland. The firefighting effort raised in response was one of the largest seen in Australian history.
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.
Helitack crews are teams of wildland firefighters who are transported by helicopter to wildfires. Helicopters provide rapid transport, enabling helitack crews to quickly respond and assess a wildfire situation. Helitack crews may land near a wildfire or, if equipped and trained, rappel from a hovering helicopter. Once on the ground, crews build firelines using hand tools, chainsaws, and other firefighting tools. They often remain overnight in remote locations. After they have completed their assignment, crew members may pack up to 120 pounds of equipment over difficult terrain to reach a pick-up point. Rappellers often prepare helispots that provide better access to a fire. Helicopter crew members may also perform other duties such as tree falling, firing operations, and managing helibases.
The Queensland Fire Department (QFD) is the primary provider of fire services in Queensland, Australia. The QFD was established on the 1st of July, 2024, and has committed to a refocus on firefighting operations after the organisational change from QFES. The QFD’s headquarters are located at the Emergency Services Complex in Kedron, Brisbane.
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.
Wildfire suppression equipment and personnel is part of the science of fire fighting focusing on the use of specialized equipment, training and tactics to effectively control, surround and eventually extinguish a natural cover fire. There are several specially designed tools that through their function and user training, perform specialized tasks that are specific to natural cover firefighting. This is used together in conjunction with the general understanding of the behavior of fire to form a viable plan of attack.
The development of aerial firefighting and forestry in southern Australia ran in parallel with the rapid improvements in aircraft technology over the last century. As more advanced and capable aircraft became available firefighters and foresters quickly sought opportunities to utilise and adapt them.
The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, or Black Summer, was one of the most intense and catastrophic fire seasons on record in Australia. It included a period of bushfires in many parts of Australia, which, due to its unusual intensity, size, duration, and uncontrollable dimension, was considered a megafire by media at the time. Exceptionally dry conditions, a lack of soil moisture, and early fires in Central Queensland led to an early start to the bushfire season, beginning in June 2019. Hundreds of fires burnt, mainly in the southeast of the country, until May 2020. The most severe fires peaked from December 2019 to January 2020.
The NSW Premier's Bushfire Emergency Citation is an award issued by the Premier of New South Wales for emergency service in the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season in New South Wales.
On 23 January 2020, a Lockheed EC-130Q Hercules, owned by Coulson Aviation, crashed while aerial firefighting for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service during Australia's black summer bushfires. All three crew on board the flight were fatally injured when the aircraft hit a tree before colliding with the ground, followed by a post-impact fuel-fed fire. The victims were US residents who were in Australia to help fight numerous substantial bushfires in the region.
2. Queensland Rural Fire Service: Arduous Pack Test Procedure (2023), Version 1.0
