Fire Department in the United States

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United States Fire Department
Flag of the United States.svg
Emergency call : 911
staff
Active
(without youth): 		1,148,500
Volunteer rate: 72%
bases
Total number: 30,815
Fire truck ( engine ) from Chico (California)

The fire brigade in the USA orients itself in technology, organization and tactics on the widespread wooden construction of houses.

Emergency call

Turntable ladder ( Tiller ladder ) from San Francisco (California)

The emergency call in the USA can be reached on the telephone number 911. A telephone operator (dispatcher) forwards the data of the emergency call to the respective institution ( police , fire brigade or rescue service ). The operator sees the calling phone number and can locate it or call it back if necessary. The emergency call is funded by a fee that appears on every phone bill, with a national and state tax being levied.

The operator tries to ask for further information about the emergency and can give the caller initial instructions about measures to be taken (e.g. breath donation ). He is supported by an emergency catalog that contains possible answers to every question to be asked, which either leads to a more detailed question or initiates an emergency instruction.

The operator has to have a calming effect on the caller in order to give the caller the feeling of not being alone and thus avoid panic and the associated dangers.

Fire truck in Wyoming
Fire truck from Avon, Colorado
Fire engine from Eagle River (Colorado)
Multifunction vehicle of the type Quint from Palm Beach (Florida)

Structure and organization

Each state regulates the fire service with its own laws and organizations, with the counties enjoying a great deal of independence. There are great differences in organization and equipment between the individual counties of a state, which is perhaps most visible in the different colors of the emergency vehicles and personal equipment. Vehicle colors can include red, yellow, yellow-green, white and blue, among others.

In several counties, the fire brigades are not provided by the public sector, but are given to private companies, which then ensure fire protection in the region. These contracts run for a certain term of several years and are then put out to tender, which has already led to disputes between the companies involved.

In addition to the volunteer fire departments (Volunteer Fire Department) there are the professional fire departments , usually called " City Name Fire Department ". With a staff of around 16,000 employees, the New York Fire Department (FDNY ) is the largest in the USA and worldwide.

The ranks and badges of rank of the American fire services are based on those of the military . A fire engine is usually led by a "captain"; the groups of lieutenants. "Chief" can generally mean commander or, especially in a professional fire brigade, can be graded over several degrees. There are also staff units and mostly a civilian management structure under a civilian officer. This is subordinate to the mayor, but sometimes he also wears uniform ("(Fire) Commissioner"). The American names are:

  • Chief of Department
  • Chief of Operations
  • (Deputy) Assistant Chief
  • Division Commander
  • Deputy Chief
  • Battalion Commander
  • Battalion Chief
  • Captain
  • Lieutenant
  • Fire fighter

Technique and tactics

vehicles

The most common fire fighting vehicles are the ladder ("ladder") and engine ("machine").

The engine is similar to the classic German fire fighting vehicle or tank fire engine . They usually also carry basic equipment for technical assistance and a water supply. A more precise gradation such as B. LF 20/16, HLF 10 as it is in Germany, there is usually no.

The ladder (also simply called truck ) usually has a larger crew than the German turntable ladder . Your crew is in addition to tactical ventilation , i.e. H. the creation of ventilation openings in the roof, responsible for locating and exposing the fire. Usually the crew is also responsible for rescuing people . In addition to the turntable ladder mounted on the vehicle chassis, there is also the tiller ladder , which is installed on a semi-trailer .

A combination of engine and ladder is the Quint (short for Quintuple combination pumper ), which combines five equipment functions: pump (with a minimum throughput of 1000 gallons per minute), turntable ladder (or aerial rescue device with permanently installed water supply), water tank (minimum capacity 300 gallons) , Hose supply (suction and pressure hoses) as well as various movable ladders (at least 85 running feet ).

Pumpers and tankers are used for pumping and transporting water.

Another vehicle with roughly the same function as the German rescue vehicle (but again with a larger crew) is usually used as a rescue vehicle . There is also HazMat teams and Vehicles (short for "hazardous material" Hazardous Substances ), see. Equipment trolley for dangerous goods .

Battalion is the name of a commander's vehicle, roughly a command vehicle . There are also so-called command and control vehicles , corresponding to a command vehicle .

Crew transport vehicles are rare due to the higher crew capacity of the other vehicles. The requirements for fire fighting vehicles are defined in Standard 1901 ("Standard for Automotive Fire Apparatus") of the National Fire Protection Agency .

staff

While German fire services strive to be able to deploy fire service personnel as universally as possible, members of US fire services are often assigned to a specific vehicle and thus to a specific task, such as fire fighting, rescuing people, etc.

A rough classification results from the separation of truck and engine companies. The engine company takes over the extinguishing of the fire while the truck company (whose vehicle is usually a turntable ladder with a crew cabin) takes over “Fireground support operations”. These include ventilation, rescuing people, making ladders, establishing a water supply, etc.

Fire fighting

Tactical ventilation plays an important role in fighting building fires ; windows are smashed and holes torn in the building roof to allow smoke and fumes to escape. The disadvantage of this tactic, however, is a chimney effect that may arise . In Germany, too, positive pressure ventilation is increasingly being taught and implemented.

The forest fire fighting is a specialized field in which next to the fire service a variety of other facilities such as conservation authorities, private companies, reserve administrations u. a. are used with their own units; the best known are probably the so-called smoke jumpers , which jump off with parachutes in remote fire areas. The vehicles and tactics here also differ greatly from fire-fighting in urban areas: the focus here is on (very effective) manual work on the undergrowth with special hoes and axes. In Western Europe, these tactics are only just being tested and are still completely unknown in many places.

FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a supranational disaster control organization at the federal level. After restructuring in 2002, it is located within the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Fire Administration (USFA). It is used to coordinate local units and to provide experts who are not available at the level of all US states. Her skills lie in leading, advising, coordinating and supporting the local emergency services. Your main task is to avoid loss of life and to keep damage to the US economy as small as possible. It is also responsible for the allocation of funds after a disaster.

FEMA is organized in ten regional and two divisional offices. Each office is responsible for multiple states or dependent areas. The regional employees work directly with state agencies to develop disaster prevention plans. In the event of disasters that have already occurred, FEMA works on site with the appropriate emergency organizations in the respective state.

Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act

Fire alarm in San Francisco
Fire alarm in New York

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Public Law 93-288), also known as The Stafford Act for short , regulates assistance to states and their residents in the event of disasters that are beyond the capabilities of local organizations. The law was passed in 1988 and regulates the announcement of the emergency by the president as well as the possible help and its organization by the FEMAs.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Standard 1901 (metadata) on the NFPA website (English)

Web links