Emergency Services
NSW Fire Brigades
The NSW Fire Brigades is one of the world's largest urban fire and rescue services, with 340 fire stations, 314 community fire units, 6,500 firefighters, 5,500 volunteers, and 360 support staff.
The Brigade provides fire and accident safety prevention and education services, deals with all types of fires, chemical spills on land and water, rescues people from road, industrial and other accidents, assists the SES following floods and storms, and maintains specialist capabilities to deal with the consequences of terrorist attacks that involve rescues following building collapse, or where chemical, biological or radioactive materials have been used.
During a major emergency, the NSW Fire Brigades will:
- Rapidly respond fire crews to save life and property and protect the environment from emergencies involving fires, explosions, hazardous materials, accidents where people or animals are trapped, and many other situations
- Respond fire engines, specialist rescue ladder/platform units, heavy rescue, hazardous materials, mobile laboratory, helicopter, firefighting vessel and other units to deal with emergencies quickly, effectively and efficiently
- Establish command points and incident management teams to manage Fire Brigade response to the emergency and to interact with Police, other emergency services, the community and media using mobile command centres and advanced communication technologies
- Provide specialist resources to assist other emergency services and Police in their roles
- Act as the lead agency in dealing with rescues following major building collapse, and deploy specialist firefighters with advanced acoustic and visual search devices and heavy equipment for tunneling beneath and cutting steel, concrete and other materials
- Decontaminate people and buildings affected by chemical, biological or radioactive materials, and as far as possible, make the area safe
- For more information go to www.nswfb.nsw.gov.au