South Australian Country Fire Service

South Australian Country Fire Service

The SA Country Fire Service is a volunteer based fire service in the state of South Australia in Australia. Many parts of Australia are sparsely populated whilst at the same time they are under significant risk of bushfire. Due to economics, it is prohibitively expensive for each Australian town or village to have a paid fire service (department). The compromise adopted is to have government funded equipment and training but volunteer fire-fighters to perform the duties of regular fire-fighters.

In South Australia, the name for the volunteer service is the CFS. Other Australian States and Territories have their own service, such as the Country Fire Authority in the state of Victoria and the Rural Fire Service in the state of New South Wales.

In the state capital Adelaide, a conventional paid service exists, called the SA Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS). A handful of large towns in South Australia also have retained 'Metro' or 'MFS' services, but the vast majority (over 430 communities) rely on the CFS. Several Adelaide suburbs that retain extensive scrubland have CFS stations whose area of operation overlaps that of the SAMFS with joint training exercises sometimes organised for major community facilities such as the Flinders Medical Centre. For urban incidents, both services will often attend with the first arrival taking command.

Read more about South Australian Country Fire Service:  About The CFS, Dispatch, Responsibility, Appliances

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