Firefighting in Finland

The main responsibilities of fire brigades are (in decreasing order of importance) rescuing people, protecting property and the environment, limiting damage and consequences.

For example, in risk area 2, the rescue unit must arrive at the accident site within ten minutes of the emergency call.

[4] Finland's professional fire and rescue service is provided by approximately 5,000 full-time employees.

The professional firefighters in Finland are trained by the Emergency Services College which operates under the Ministry of the Interior.

Special expertise of Research and Development unit are in ICT within emergency services, CBRNE and dealing with cross-border emergencies, exploitation of statistics, future foresight in rescue services and accident investigation.

Field tests and authentication methods can be easily performed for the research and development purposes.

This special training can include dealing with poisonous substances, operating in extremely complex industrial buildings and other similar tasks.

The voluntary fire brigades offer approximately 15 000 trained firefighters that are actively in service.

The people in both voluntary and half-ordinary fire brigades may get paid for their work in actual emergency situations.

This is often the case especially with voluntary (and half-ordinary) fire brigades operating in high risk areas.

The training usually includes basic firemen skills (how to handle the personal gear, first aid, fire engine operation) and possibly fitness exercises.

To operate in a real emergency scene, one must have completed both initial training and a basic firemen skill course.

There are over 500 youth departments (in which there are over 10 000 young firefighters) in Finnish fire brigades and most of them accept boys and girls, usually aged 8 to 16.

The firefighting equipment, from fire engines to the personal protective gear firemen wear, is fairly modern in Finland.

The Ministry of the Interior has set strict rules and regulations governing the protective gear and fire brigades' equipment.