NB: The Southern African Fire & Emergency Rescue Services
"SAFER Service"
is not a real entity and exsist only in cyberspace.
SAFER Service
is the dreamchild of Brandon Wilson and his
vision of how emergency services should be managed through "open" information sharing and the elimination of
duplication. The information supplied in this website reflects the knowledge and experiences of Brandon, it should
not be soley relied upon as fact. Information is supplied for demonstration purposes only.
About Fire Departments, Fire Services and Fire Brigades
A fire department, brigade or service is a public or private organization that
provides fire protection for a jurisdiction, which typically is a
municipality, metropolitan district, or fire protection district. A fire
department usually contains one or more fire stations within its boundaries and
may be staffed by career firefighters, volunteers, or a combination thereof. The
first fire department was in Ancient Rome. These men fought fires and also
patrolled the streets with the authority to impose corporal punishment upon those
who violated fire prevention codes. Fire Departments were formed by
insurance companies in the
18th and 19th century. Benjamin Franklin is seen as
the father of the fire department in western culture. In 1736, he established
the first fire insurance company named the Union Volunteer Fire Company in
Philadelphia. The City of Boston established the very first publicly funded paid
fire department in America in 1679. In the late 19th century, the demand of
central command for fire companies took place within cities because the fire
companies would fight over or not put out a fire because the owners didn't
have fire insurance. This caused areas of a city to be badly damage by
fires and caused many deaths.
The Fire Department's Jurisdiction
The fire department's jurisdiction is organized by the governmental body that controls it,
this might be a municipality, province or state, although there are private fire departments as well.
The most common type of government control is at municipal level who deals with the placement of fire stations,
equipment, and personnel within the area of control.
Fire departments periodically survey their areas and use the data for redeploying proper coverage.
This data comes from travel time, distance from station, or a population survey.
A fire department is normally set up where it can have fire stations and sophisticated fire
apparatus strategically deployed throughout the area under its control so that dispatchers can send fire trucks
or ambulances from the fire stations closest to the incident. Larger departments have branches within themselves
to increase efficiency.