[10] The service is headquartered in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, on the south-eastern outskirts of Glasgow, incorporating a national training centre, opened in January 2013.

[12] Pat Watters, former president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, was also announced as chair of the service, an appointment to run for three years from September 2012.

[13] Members of the SFRS Board appointed in October 2012 were Watters, Bob Benson, James Campbell, Kirsty Darwent, Marieke Dwarshuis, Michael Foxley, Robin Iffla, Bill McQueen, Sid Patten, Neil Pirie, Martin Togneri and Grant Thoms.

Prior to the 2013 merger, this set out a model response across all services when dealing with major disruptive incidents where mutual assistance would be needed.

To support this, the Scottish Government funded a range of specialist vehicles and equipment to deal with these new hazards, and as of 2020 there were 39 resilience appliances in SFRS' fleet.

The DIM vehicles are used as a form of mobile laboratory at serious chemical, biological radiological and nuclear (CBRN) instances, supporting a wide range of incidents including flooding, HAZMAT, Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) and Mass Decontamination.

[19] The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has numerous equipment and vehicles used to protect the environment and animals from potentially harmful incidents across Scotland.

[19] Mass Decontamination (MD) is the removal of harmful contaminants from large amounts of people in the case of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) incidents and industrial accidents.

[23][18][19] Under the New Dimensions programme 4 high-volume pumping units (HVPU) were provided by the Scottish government and strategically placed across Scotland at Elgin, Dundee, Falkirk and Clydesmill (Glasgow).

The primary use of HVPs is to support flooding incidents but can be used in firefighting instances such as the 2018 Glasgow School of Art fire because of their capabilities to transport large quantities of water.

[20][24][19] In 2005 under government legislation it became the eight antecedent fire and rescue service's of Scotland's responsibility to prepare and respond to flooding and other water related incidents in which there is a risk of a person to die, become seriously ill or injured and protect them from harm.

The result of this is a Mercedes Sprinter van containing water rescue equipment, welfare facilities, and trailering a rigid permanently inflated boat for immediate deployment.

[15] In 2015, a national trial was launched, in partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service, which has seen firefighters at certain stations receive enhanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training aimed at increasing survival rates for people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Four stations contain these line rescue units (LRU), strategically placed across the country in Altens (Aberdeen), Lochgelly, Tollcross (Edinburgh), and East Kilbride.

The facility in Cambuslang features a mock town with realistic motorways, railway tracks and buildings, including a multi-storey tenement structure.