Copenhagen Fire Brigade

The Tasks of the Fire brigade

The Emergency Preparedness Act establishes that it is the mission of the fire brigade to prevent, limit, and relieve damages to persons, property, and the environment in case of accidents and disasters. This implies that the core performances of the fire brigade are:

Fire and Rescue Service,
Ambulance Service,
Transportation of Patients,
Fire Prevention,
Alarm and Control Room (1-1-2), and
Civil Contingency Planning.

In order to ensure that these services are able to live up to the legislative or contractual demands on function and efficiency 24 hours a day all the year round, the services are supported by an administration, a control room, a Fire and Rescue Training School, and a repair and depot service.

Other Tasks

Besides the tasks mentioned above, which are performed according to legislation, resolutions in the City Council, or according to contractual obligations, the fire brigade carries out a number of missions in continuation of the regular set of tasks, e.g.:

Cooperation with

The Capital Region of Copenhagen about the “psychiatry ambulance” and the “emergency medical ambulance”,
The Metro (extra emergency preparedness because of the special conditions of access).

Beyond this the fire brigade offers assistance to the 24-hour service in Copenhagen, the neighbouring municipalities, the police, the Great Belt tunnel, the Oresund connexion and others.

The Organization of the Fire Brigade

Copenhagen is a fascinating and active city with many new development projects. Projects like the Metro, the Orestad, and the old and admirable buildings of the city, all have an impact on the work of the fire brigade.

Therefore our emergency preparedness is continuously being adjusted; we develop and purchase new material, and we educate our personnel so that their training is in the top class in order to enable them to handle even the most difficult rescue tasks. This also makes special demands on the organization of the fire brigade – it must be dynamic and in constant motion – which means being in a position to move to where the tasks are.

Today Copenhagen Fire Brigade is a decentralized organization, directed by a management consisting of the Chief Fire Officer and the Deputy Chief Fire Officer. The seven fire stations are partly independent units, where each station commander is responsible for the economy, personnel, and the daily running of the stations. Moreover, the Service Department is divided into two result centres, which together with the Secretariat of the Management, the Administrative Department, and the Department of Fire Prevention, solve tasks across the organization for internal and external customers.

The Economy of the Fire Brigade

The costs for the running of Copenhagen Fire Brigade are covered partly be the Municipality of Copenhagen and partly through income from the contracts that the fire brigade has entered into with e.g. The Capital Region of Copenhagen on ambulance tasks and transportation of patients.