The competences of the Fire Rescue Service of the CR are defined by Act no. 238/2000 Coll., on the Fire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic, as amended. The primary mission of the Fire Rescue Service of the CR, as stipulated by the law, is to protect the lives and the health of citizens and their property against fire, and to provide effective help in emergencies such as floods and other natural disasters, ecological and traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, etc.
Simply said, the Fire Rescue Service does not only deal with fire but its firemen are often called to solve problems that are usually dealt with by specialists in other countries. The Fire Rescue Service of the CR also cooperates in the prevention of fire and other unwanted events and plays a key role in the preparation of the state for special events.
The Fire Rescue Service of the CR is also the essential and main coordinator of the
Integrated Rescue Service (IZS) in the country. It was established in order to cope with unexpected events such as fire, traffic accidents and other everyday accidents that require the cooperation of firemen, medical staff, police and other services. In fact, this means that if more than one service of the IZS deals with a situation, there is usually a member of the Fire Rescue Team CR at the place who is in charge of the cooperation of the operating services. This person usually coordinates the rescue and salvage operations.
The Regional Fire Rescue Services primarily deal with tasks concerning fire prevention and state fire supervision, such as fire prevention inspection, building inspections, approval on assessment of fire risk and investigation in terms of the causes of fire.
Emergency services telephone numbers:
- 150 Fire Rescue Service of the CR
- 112 Unified European number for emergency services
Volunteer fire brigade
The volunteer fire brigade is a general term for volunteer fire-fighters. It is either a legally independent association or a part of a bigger institution, such as the Association of Fire-fighters of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, the Czech Fire-fighters Union or the Moravian Fire-fighters Union. They are sponsored by municipalities or local companies.
The operations of the volunteer fire brigade include the same scope of work as the Fire Rescue Service. Apart from extinguishing fire, they take action in case of floods, other natural disasters, ecological accidents, help with traffic accidents and other emergencies.
The volunteer fire brigades often play an important role in the town’s social life.