Finland

Finland is a country in Northern Europe, Finland's area totals 338,455 km² (130,678 sq mi) with a total population of 5,635,971 (2024). Finland is one of the worlds nothernmost countries.

Finland has 21 regional fire departments which are managed by their respective wellbeing service counties and 1 municipal fire department. These departments are supported by a sytem of volunteer and part-time fire brigades that have made a contract with their respective regional/municipal fire department and are integrated into the departments command & response structure. In Finland the main differance between a part-time and volunteer fire brigade is, that in part-time brigades it it the individual members who get paid for callouts, trainings and at a state of readyness at the station, with volunteer brigades it is the respective association that has made the agreement with the department and thus the association gets paid for attending callouts and PR-events. In addition to these Finland also has a network of over a 150 industrial fire brigades, the Finnish National Airport Adminstration has a network of ARFF stations at Finnish airports across the country and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency has it's own railway rescue service. All three branches of the Finnish Defence Force (army,navy&airforce) and the FDF's Logistics Command also opearate rescue and firefighting units. Calltaking and dispatching of firefighting, EMS & rescue units is handeled by the National Emergency Response Centre Agency. Aerial firefighting in large scale forestry fires is handeled by the Finnish Border Guard and the Finnish Air Rescue Association. Maritime SAR operations are carried out by the regional fire departments, the Finnish Border Guard and the Finnish Lifeboat Institution. Firefighter, volunteer and dispatcher education is provided by the National Emegency Services College