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United Nations Firefighting
Hello all..
Some of you know me, and some dno't, so I will just give a quick intro.
I am a 22 year old volunteer firefighter with the Danish Emergency Management Agency (Like FEMA, but with a lot more operative units), and have been so for 5 years.
Also I have had 6 months of conscripted service, also in DEMA.
We have gotten a new, and very interesting mission that I would like to share with you all.
The UN has a mission in Lebanon, called UNIFIL, and their job is basically to make sure that Lebanon and Israel don't pick on each other and get in a fight.
In south Lebanon, the UNIFIL has their main base of operation, and this base also has a firehouse.
Recently the responsibility of the firehouse (and the logistics company) went to the Royal Danish Army.
The Danish Army hasn't got any major kind of firefighting equipment or experience, so they have outsourced the task to DEMA.
The thought of having civilians (non military personnel), with operative tasks in a UN-base is a very new one, but the UN is in general happy about it.
The task we have been given is to man a firehouse, to conduct supervision (buildingcodes, escaperoutes, correct extinguishers and so on) on ALL UN-things in Lebanon, to educate in basic firefighting with hand-extinguishers and much more.
The firehouse is manned by 10 firefighters:
- 1 chief
- 3 Crew Commanders
- 6 Firefighters
It is divided into 3 teams of 1 Crew commander and 2 firefighters.
One team will be on the firestation, one team will have the helopad-watch (sitting and waiting for something to crash), and the last team will have a day off (day off = supervision, educating and so on).
This kind of international mission is very new to DEMA.
We have been during international humanitarian missions for 20 years, and currently have both water purification equipment in Haiti and Pakistan, we run a UN logistic-base in Haiti and Pakistan, and we have an emergency mobile hospital deployed in Pakistan.
But a pure firefighting-mission is very new to us.
Also the task of having to work only 3 persons to fight a fire, is a very new thing that requires a lot of training. (Normally we respond as extra help to the local and regional firedeparments, with anywhere from 10 to 30 persons).
In general, a very interesting and challenging task, and also hopefully one that will show the UN, that civilian firefighters/emergency services, can work just as well, or better, in international operations, as military units.
Some of you know me, and some dno't, so I will just give a quick intro.
I am a 22 year old volunteer firefighter with the Danish Emergency Management Agency (Like FEMA, but with a lot more operative units), and have been so for 5 years.
Also I have had 6 months of conscripted service, also in DEMA.
We have gotten a new, and very interesting mission that I would like to share with you all.
The UN has a mission in Lebanon, called UNIFIL, and their job is basically to make sure that Lebanon and Israel don't pick on each other and get in a fight.
In south Lebanon, the UNIFIL has their main base of operation, and this base also has a firehouse.
Recently the responsibility of the firehouse (and the logistics company) went to the Royal Danish Army.
The Danish Army hasn't got any major kind of firefighting equipment or experience, so they have outsourced the task to DEMA.
The thought of having civilians (non military personnel), with operative tasks in a UN-base is a very new one, but the UN is in general happy about it.
The task we have been given is to man a firehouse, to conduct supervision (buildingcodes, escaperoutes, correct extinguishers and so on) on ALL UN-things in Lebanon, to educate in basic firefighting with hand-extinguishers and much more.
The firehouse is manned by 10 firefighters:
- 1 chief
- 3 Crew Commanders
- 6 Firefighters
It is divided into 3 teams of 1 Crew commander and 2 firefighters.
One team will be on the firestation, one team will have the helopad-watch (sitting and waiting for something to crash), and the last team will have a day off (day off = supervision, educating and so on).
This kind of international mission is very new to DEMA.
We have been during international humanitarian missions for 20 years, and currently have both water purification equipment in Haiti and Pakistan, we run a UN logistic-base in Haiti and Pakistan, and we have an emergency mobile hospital deployed in Pakistan.
But a pure firefighting-mission is very new to us.
Also the task of having to work only 3 persons to fight a fire, is a very new thing that requires a lot of training. (Normally we respond as extra help to the local and regional firedeparments, with anywhere from 10 to 30 persons).
In general, a very interesting and challenging task, and also hopefully one that will show the UN, that civilian firefighters/emergency services, can work just as well, or better, in international operations, as military units.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Otakar Lukac on
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Dear Sune:
I have work with UN before also, firefighting, rescue, EMS in many countries like Sudan, etc, I am very interested in giving you some advice, please kindly write me direct to olukac@hotmail.com as some info is really confidential and very sensitive.
My best regards
Dipl. Ing. Otakar Lukac, CSP, CFPS, EMT-P
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Permalink Reply by Sune Schønnemann on
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Our tours are 3 months only, and not 6 months like the armed forces.
The reason for this is that the DEMA is a relative small unit, and in 1-2 years we plan to invite the municipal firedepartments to join us, and it would be to big of a burden for them to be without for example their firemarshall for 6 months (+3-4 months of education before deployment)
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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What an incredible adventure. Your post is one of the most communicative and informative posts that I have read in a long time. I look forward to hearing more about your assignments and offer my assistance in regard to how a 3-person engine company works. Stay safe out there!
CBz
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Email sent :)
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Hello Mike.
Thanks.
Normally we respond the following way to incidents (in local municipal firedepartments)
- 1 Incident Commander
Responsible for the over all commanding of the troops, and also the person who has unlimited access to funds and resources needed for completing the job
- 1 Crew Commander
Responsible for the 5 firefighters under his command (there can be a lot of crew commanders at larger incidents, but no more then 1 incident commander)
- 5 Firefighters
A driver/engineer, and 4 firefighters. We all the all the jobs. It's not diveded like in the US with trucks and ladders.
Responding only 3 persons, is a major challenge, not so much for the firefighters, but for the commanders.
The incident commander/crew commander is the same person, and if the 2 firefighters have to go rescue somebody inside a building the crew/incident commander has to be the engineer on the truck, do recon for dangers, and EVERYTHING else.
4 persons jobs, held by one person..
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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That sound like a fantastic opportunity, I wish you well. Many American departments run with a 3 person engine and no ladder truck. It is a matter of doing things in steps, it just takes longer and the fire does more damage but it is manageable. I have thought about working for the UN when I retire if I could find a fire related job. Sounds very interesting, be safe.
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I find it very interesting that you run a 3 person engine some places...
Then I suppose some more backup will come later on? Or what?
In Denmark this would never happen..
We have extremely high standards for safety and damage control.
For example the private damage control firms (payed by insurance companies) are in most cases alerted within the first 5-10 minutes after the firedepartment, and they most often work at the scene together with the firedepartment, even in the critical phase of the fire..
- For example we don't knock down all the burned wood like you see american departments do.. We leave that job for the Damage Control firms..
On the safety side, we also use our SCBA constantly (almost, even for a simple car fire) and for example we don't go into a building without having at least a 4-man crew outside for support.
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I wish, we have to have two people inside and two people outside at a minimum. There are many cities that have only 3 people on an engine or ladder truck. Some have 4, a few have 5 or 6 on each unit. But because US cities are more spread out that EU cities we must have more stations to have short response times. So we have less people on each unit but more stations. Each station usually has just one or two staffed units. But we respond enough units to get 15 to 20 people on scene depending on the size of the fire and building, more if needed.
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Fair enough..
Makes sense..
We always laugh a bit at you Americans here in Denmark, because we see pictures of 6-7-8 of more engines and ladders at a fire, where we normally respond with 2-3 vehicles..
But as you say, it's a lot about how many people is on each vehicle.
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Don't laugh too hard at us, we get paid well. But we do not have enough FF on our equipment.
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