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.
