Every oper­a­tion site brings with it differ­ent dangers and stresses, vege­ta­tion fire­fight­ing is often char­ac­terised by having to perform heavy phys­i­cal work over a long period of time in elevated outdoor temperatures.

For many fire brigades, vege­ta­tion fire­fight­ing is only part of their remit. The procure­ment of “addi­tional” protec­tive cloth­ing - perhaps just after the EN 469 “cloth­ing” has appeared and one had to spend a lot of money on it - is often diffi­cult to enforce vis-à-vis admin­is­tra­tion and politics.

We distin­guish two cases here:
- Type 1 fire brigades whose main task is not fight­ing vege­ta­tion fires, but which are occa­sion­ally confronted with them.
- Type 2 fire brigades that have to respond very frequently to vege­ta­tion fires or are active in special supra-local units that are requested to respond to large vege­ta­tion fires.

Of course, Type 1 fire brigades can and should “upgrade” to Type 2, but expe­ri­ence has shown that it is very diffi­cult to argue the case to funders.