Cyprus Fire Service

Turkish: Kıbrıs İtfaiyesi) is the national firefighting service of Cyprus, with the principle task of undertaking of rescues from building rubble, the highlands, water bodies (sea, dams etc.

The Fire Service, in its present form, was launched in the mid-1950s, to meet the needs of the British that arose, due to the anti-colonial struggle of Cypriots and the developments in the Suez area.

The legislation which is in force until today, the "Cyprus Fire Service" was formed within the organizational structure of the police.

Although the formation of a special unit responding to disasters within the structure of the Fire Service was a concept that existed for several years, there were no significant steps made to implement it, but the large destructive earthquakes that struck Cyprus’ neighboring countries, Turkey and Greece in 1999, revealed the urgent need to create such a special unit for dealing with major disasters in the country.

The unit is based in Kofinou due to the central location of this community, to allow easy access in the areas of Cyprus that are not occupied.

A number of elite members of the Unit also received specialised search and rescue Scuba diving training for sea, lakes and dams.