THE INDEPENDENT VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTS OF LISBON - 1999
There are seven volunteer "fire and ambulance" Departments in Lisbon. They are all private non-profit charity-aimed associations of good-willing citizens.
All together they have approximately 500 firefighters, 35 ambulances, and 40 fully equipped fire, rescue and ancilliary rigs.
Any one of those Volunteer Fire Departments has the profile of an "independent fire Battalion" (with its own Chief).
Each one of them responds from its own (single) Station and has a precise city area pre-detailed for 1st alarm attendance, being however due citywide at higher alarms.
These VFDs are supporting units to the RSB (the fully professional and first-due City Fire Department in Lisbon, funded by the Municipality) by whose orders they respond/turn-out and operate at any incident.
Five of the VFD's stations are located in the central city core. The remaining two are located in the eastern part of Lisbon, not far away from the EXPO98 site.
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By date of foundation, these are Lisbon's VFDs:
Bombeiros Voluntários de Lisboa
Bombeiros Voluntários da Ajuda
Bombeiros Voluntários Lisbonenses
Bombeiros Voluntários de Campo de Ourique
Bombeiros Voluntários de Cabo Ruivo
Bombeiros Voluntários da Cruz de Malta
Bombeiros Voluntários do Beato e Olivais
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The Cruz de Malta and Beato e Olivais Depts are officialy licensed for ambulance duty only but they possess fire and rescue rigs (the biggest tanker in town is actually owned by Beato e Olivais!) , which have been seen operating in multi-alarm fires in Lisbon, irregularly (by the VD's own initiative..) but providing additional help indeed.
All of those Departments have their own "watchmen on duty ", on a round-the-clock basis, who receive calls from the RSB Dispatcher but also directly from the public, namely for non-emergency sevices (emergency calls to a VFD must be instantly relayed to the RSB dispatcher).
The VFDs provide most of the emergency and non-emergency ambulance service in Lisbon as well as a considerable backup to RSB, as far as fire and other emergencies are concerned.
Volunteer Firefighters are not paid and provide the manning for night regular shifts at the VFD Stations concerned, as well as some day- duty (this on a personal random time availability). Volunteer Firefighters receive basic and post basic full fire and emergency operations training, and follow a formal "career" (standardized nationwide), with grades granted after passing the relevant tests concerned (see below)).
When attending to an incident within Lisbon the senior ranking volunteer Firefighter in the task force dispatched from any VFD will report to (and take orders from) the RSB officer in charge, immediately on arrival.
The "volunteer pattern" of fire and emergency service is very deeply rooted in Portuguese society and culture ,for more than 600 years. Currently ,more than 35 000 volunteer Firefighters respond from more than 450 Departments nationwide (total portuguese population: approximately 10 Million), under policy-setting and supervision from the Portuguese national fire Authority (SNB). As a matter of fact, professional full time Firefighters in Portugal number only about 2 500, manning 6 municipal Departments (in the larger cities).
Volunteer Departments pay for their investment and running costs, being funded by a combination of private, municipal and central government sources. Local Volunteer FDs traditionally provide many social, cultural, sports and recreational events, which usually take place in their Stations, these being large buildings with a number of different facilities extensive to local population as well (ballroom hall ,swimming pool,restaurant,etc...).
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Ranking of Volunteer Personnel is standardized nationwide, on a different basis than professional Firefighters. Each VFD roster integrates the following ranks:
OFFICERS (FD Command)
-1 Fire Chief (Comandante)
-1 Deputy Fire Chief ,in larger FDs (2ºComandante)
-1 Assistant Fire Chief (Ajudante do Comando)
PETTY-OFFICERS
-up to 5 Senior Petty Officers (Chefe)
-up to 5 Junior Petty-Officers (Sub-chefe)
FIREFIGHTERS
-1st Grade (1ªClasse)
-2nd Grade (2ªClasse)
-3rd Grade (3ªClasse)
TRAINEES
-Senior,above 18 years of age (Aspirante)
-Junior,below 18 years of age (Cadete)
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January 1999