Fire brigades respond more rapidly to alarms

Fire brigades arrive sooner at the scene in the case of chimney and indoor fires. Last year, the dispatch time, i.e. the time interval between receipt of the alarm in the emergency room and departure from the fire station has been reduced.

Response time chimney and indoor fires (excluding false alarms)

Response time chimney and indoor fires (excluding false alarms)

Shorter time interval between receipt of the alarm at the fire station and departure from the station

The notification time in the case of chimney and indoor fires averaged 1.6 minutes in 2008, as against 1.7 minutes in 2007. The dispatch time is hence back at the level of 2006.

The time interval between receipt of the alarm at the fire station and departure from the station had dropped for this type of fires for the second year running: in 2008 it took on average 3.1 minutes for the fire brigade to leave the station after receipt of the alarm, as opposed to 3.2 minutes in 2007 and 3.4 minutes in 2006.

Travel times unchanged

Travel times for chimney and indoor fires have not changed. In 2008 – just like the year before – it took fire brigades an average of 4.6 minutes to travel from the station to the scene of the fire.

The overall time interval required to arrive at the scene of the fire after receipt of the fire alarm averaged 9.3 minutes in 2008. That is 0.2 minutes faster than in 2007 and as fast as in 2006.

Operational personnel fire brigades by type of employment

Operational personnel fire brigades by type of employment

Number of volunteer firefighters continues to decline

The number of volunteers in operational service had declined by more than 600 persons on 1 January 2009 relative to 2005.  The number of professional firefighters in operational service, on the other hand, has grown by nearly 150 persons over the same period. 

Vinodh Lalta and Cecile Schut