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Firefighting in Denmark - The 3 levels
Fire and rescue in Denmark.
Hi there.
I have a theory that there is quite a bit of difference between US firefighting and European firefighting.
In this article/discussion, I’ll try and tell a bit about how we do things in Denmark, and hopefully it’ll be a learning experience to both me and you.
I’ll start by telling (or trying) to tell a bit about the 3 levels of emergency service in Denmark.
Please note that this is only about fire departments – NOT EMS/Ambulance. This will come later.
A bit about Denmark
Denmark is a small European country located north of Germany and east of the UK. See the attached map, for location (the red stuff is Denmark)
Denmark holds about 6 million people, and the government is a democracy, but we do also have a monarchy and a queen (same system as in the UK).
The 3 levels of emergency management
Level 1 is the local cities emergency service. Each county is responsible for the fire department, and in case of disasters all counties must be able to provide food and housing for 5% of its population.
The fire department can be either 100% volunteer (only in a small part of the country), part-time (works the same way as volunteer, but they get paid like 15$ an hour), or a full-time department.
Level 1 has 5 minutes to get the vehicles out of the garage, after the alarm is received.
Level 2 is manned by volunteer firefighters from a county, but the equipment is paid by the state (DEMA), and only responds to major incidents. Every level 2 department covers about 10-20 counties.
Level 2 has 30 minutes to get the vehicles out of the garage, after the alarm is received.
DEMA stands for Danish Emergency Management Agency, and is the nationwide state fire department.
Level 3 is a 2 part system.
Level 3, is the highest, most advanced level of fire department/HAZMAT and will be called in, when all others fail.
Part 1 is made up by five civil defense (also DEMA) barracks with enlisted men (about 25% of all men in the age of 18 will be drafted for either the army or civil defense service).
It might sound crazy that our most advanced firefighters are enlisted men, but they get an intense 4 months education before they get to perform on their own.
Part 2 is made up of a volunteer unit (150 members) residing at one of the barracks, and another unit having its own barrack (300 members). This is where I am a firefighter.
Level 3 has 10 minutes to get the vehicles out of the garage, after the alarm is received, the volunteers has 60 minutes.
An example of the 3 level system:
The local fire department, level 1, gets called out to a fire at a chemical factory.
They start to rescue people, block of the area and contain the fire.
The incident commander quickly realizes that he doesn’t have the equipment to contain the massive chemical spill. He calls in the level 3 department to help.
The level 3 department arrives, and the spill is under control.
The fire is very big, and it will take several days to extinguish. The level 1 is send home, and the volunteers of level 2 and 3 is send in to extinguish the fires together with the enlisted level 3. If the county has a volunteer department besides the part-time, they will also be used.
As you can read, the levels are not fixed, but the level 1 department will always be called out, since they are the fire department of the local county, and they are the first responders (and because the county is ALLWAYS responsible for the incident).
I hope you guys understand this :-)
If not, feel free to ask.
What’s next in my little series of articles I don’t know yet.
Hi there.
I have a theory that there is quite a bit of difference between US firefighting and European firefighting.
In this article/discussion, I’ll try and tell a bit about how we do things in Denmark, and hopefully it’ll be a learning experience to both me and you.
I’ll start by telling (or trying) to tell a bit about the 3 levels of emergency service in Denmark.
Please note that this is only about fire departments – NOT EMS/Ambulance. This will come later.
A bit about Denmark
Denmark is a small European country located north of Germany and east of the UK. See the attached map, for location (the red stuff is Denmark)
Denmark holds about 6 million people, and the government is a democracy, but we do also have a monarchy and a queen (same system as in the UK).
The 3 levels of emergency management
Level 1 is the local cities emergency service. Each county is responsible for the fire department, and in case of disasters all counties must be able to provide food and housing for 5% of its population.
The fire department can be either 100% volunteer (only in a small part of the country), part-time (works the same way as volunteer, but they get paid like 15$ an hour), or a full-time department.
Level 1 has 5 minutes to get the vehicles out of the garage, after the alarm is received.
Level 2 is manned by volunteer firefighters from a county, but the equipment is paid by the state (DEMA), and only responds to major incidents. Every level 2 department covers about 10-20 counties.
Level 2 has 30 minutes to get the vehicles out of the garage, after the alarm is received.
DEMA stands for Danish Emergency Management Agency, and is the nationwide state fire department.
Level 3 is a 2 part system.
Level 3, is the highest, most advanced level of fire department/HAZMAT and will be called in, when all others fail.
Part 1 is made up by five civil defense (also DEMA) barracks with enlisted men (about 25% of all men in the age of 18 will be drafted for either the army or civil defense service).
It might sound crazy that our most advanced firefighters are enlisted men, but they get an intense 4 months education before they get to perform on their own.
Part 2 is made up of a volunteer unit (150 members) residing at one of the barracks, and another unit having its own barrack (300 members). This is where I am a firefighter.
Level 3 has 10 minutes to get the vehicles out of the garage, after the alarm is received, the volunteers has 60 minutes.
An example of the 3 level system:
The local fire department, level 1, gets called out to a fire at a chemical factory.
They start to rescue people, block of the area and contain the fire.
The incident commander quickly realizes that he doesn’t have the equipment to contain the massive chemical spill. He calls in the level 3 department to help.
The level 3 department arrives, and the spill is under control.
The fire is very big, and it will take several days to extinguish. The level 1 is send home, and the volunteers of level 2 and 3 is send in to extinguish the fires together with the enlisted level 3. If the county has a volunteer department besides the part-time, they will also be used.
As you can read, the levels are not fixed, but the level 1 department will always be called out, since they are the fire department of the local county, and they are the first responders (and because the county is ALLWAYS responsible for the incident).
I hope you guys understand this :-)
If not, feel free to ask.
What’s next in my little series of articles I don’t know yet.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sune Schønnemann on
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I got some extra info for you about the local fire departments (level 1)
The volunteer or part-time employees DO NOT have lights or sirens on their personal cars.
They simply have to life and work close enough to the firestation that they can:
Get the call, go to their car, drive (LEGALLY) to the firehouse, change to uniform, and drive the engine out of the garage in 5 minuttes.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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Well Sune, I at least found your description interesting! I must have more interest in ofher countries than most people.
Having the three levels of firefighters is interesting, totally different to us, but it obviously works for Denmark. I'd never heard of it either. Have I understoud corectly that for Level 1 the Council are responsible? Would that be for wages for the career members as well as for vehicles and equipment? And that the career members are allowed five minutes to respond to a call, the same as the volunteers?
Our volunteers are similar to yours - no emergency lights and sirens allowed. We receive a message via alpha numeric pager and have to travel to the station, must obey all laws, get dressed in uniform and move the vehicle out. One difference is that we have to roll the truck in four minutes from the pager message, not five.
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Hi Tony..
4 minutes for volunteers/part-time doesn't sound like very much time - In 99,9% of cities with this kind of department, it's very difficult to find firefighters who live and work close enough to make it in 5..
We also use pagers only, never sirens like they do in some smaller US towns - our air-raid sirens are still in active use for mayor emergencies and so on.
The councils cover about 40.000-60.000 citizens, unless in the mayor cities where they may cover up to 2 millions. (so a council/municipality covers anywhere from 1 to 10 cities/towns).
It's up to them to choose what kind of department they need different places in the municipality (risk assessment).
They also pay for the equipment, firefighters wages, and so on. Though some places they choose to give this task to a subcontractor (mostly Falck, see below)
- Falck is know in the US as "Falck Training" (offshore security training) and "Falck Alford" after purchasing the Alford Group.
When responding to a call, the incident commander/chief is ALWAYS a person hired by the city council, even if it's a Falck-department, the reason for this being that the council is responsible for anything that goes wrong, and the city pays for what ever extra material is needed.
So you did understand it correctly :-)
And the full-time/career fire-departments has 1 minute to get the engine out of the garage (no rules for other vehicles)
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I'm really enjoying this Sune. Things like this about your country so rarely get mentioned.
So. Your career firefighters have one minute to roll an engine? They'd like our career members requirement! Two minutes to roll a pumper after the pagers go off. This came about from the issue of new structural gear (the sort of thing that the rest of the modern world has been using for twenty years of more...) and apparently we (the volunteers) are going to be allowed an extra thrty secondes as well - take us to 4 minutes 30 seconds.
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Thanks Tony..
In one minute, the engine has to LEAVE the garage.. Tanker/ladder/rescue unit and so on, doesn't have any official rules, but within 3 minutes is acceptable.
What kind of 'new structural gear' ?
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We've just been issued new structural turnout clothing. For many years we've worn a pair of treated cotton over-trousers and a thick woollen jacket. The clothing was good, it was easy to wear and quick to get on. But it was seen as time to have us follow the rest of the 'modern' world. In my fire service volunteers had a personal choice of PBI Gold or Nomex - the career firefighters were told by their union that they had to wear PBI Gold. I chose the Nomex.
The new clothing may be 'safer' if there happens to be a flashover, but it takes longer to dress in. and it is much hotter to wear! Clothing that won't allow body heat to leave isn't a very good idea here. Even when the temperature has only been 20C the stuff maintains too much heat. We are really not looking ofrward to structural fires next summer! The though of having to wear this stuff when the temperature is well over 35C has us wondering just how many injuries from heat there are likely to be.
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Hi all.. Working on a little story about the level 1 departments work...
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Permalink Reply by wayne frary on
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Hi there everyone. I was reading your article with interest and it allways amazes me how different country's do the same job in different ways. Here in the UK we have 'wholetime' firefighters in the cities and large towns, with the city stations staffed 24/7 365 days a year and some of the stations in the towns 'day' crewed and retained ( on call ) at night. Out in the rural areas, the stations are 'retained' which means that the guys have regular jobs and are on call at the same time. When I was retained, we had 5 mins to get to the station ( legally and at normal road speed ),and turn out. I have been wholetime now for 5 years in the city of Norwich and we get 1 minute to turn out. This system seems to work pretty well, on the whole. Take care everyone and look forward to some more comments. Wayne.
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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on
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Thanks for sharing on how your departments operate, it was quite interesting reading, especially on the four month training before being release to perform. That's quite a bit of training, which is OK. The enlisted program sounds like it plays a double role for your country.
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Hi Wayne..
Sounds just like Denmark... :)
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Hi Rusty..
You're welcome..
The 4 months is for the conscripts who train it full time...
The enlisted-program is a left-over from the good old cold-war days... There's also a lot of talk about removing the military enlistment program.. What will happen to the civil-defence no one knows, but it would be a great loss in my opinion..
And the 4 months are before they can work themselfes... After 1 month they can function as helpers..
When the municipal firedepartments train people they first get a 1½ course, have to work as helpers for a year (it's a year no mather if they are parttime or fulltime), and then they can take a 1-month course...
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Sune, Those training requirements sound solid. It seems they want you to know what you doing before turning you lose. There are a lot of departments in this country that issue you gear, and say OK you're ready without any mandatory training, then the recruit wonders why is superiors are giving him or her the, what the hell are you doing speech.One other question,does your country use or follow any of the NFPA standards?
Anyway, thanks again for a different look into how other countries do things.
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