V.F.D. - Background

Background

V.F.D. was first mentioned in The Austere Academy when the Quagmire triplets, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire were researching Count Olaf's history. At the climax of the book, they reveal that they have discovered an important secret regarding V.F.D., but are kidnapped by Count Olaf before they can tell the Baudelaire orphans what they've discovered. The V.F.D. increases in prominence in subsequent volumes; the group is connected with the deaths of the Baudelaire and the Quagmire parents and the schemes of their enemy, Count Olaf. It eventually transpires that it is the name of a secret organization. The Slippery Slope suggests that V.F.D. stands for 'Volunteer Fire Department', among other things; in The End Lemony Snicket's narration seems to confirm that 'Volunteer Fire Department' is indeed the correct meaning of the initials. In The Grim Grotto, it is revealed that while this was the origin of the organization, its members had many other interests. "V.F.D." is also used as an abbreviation for various terms and organizations related to the organization, which increases the confusion of outsiders regarding the purpose of the group.

According to Kit Snicket, it can be read to mean a group that actively starts fires (something of an allusion to the "firemen" in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451), which indeed happens when the group is split because of a schism. One group of Schismatics fights fires and the other half are arsonists. When the Schism occurred and exactly why it occurred is unknown, except that it was in the childhood of Kit Snicket and Dewey Denouement and that it appears that a line has been drawn between those who stop fires and those who start them. The members of the former are called "volunteers" and the members of the latter are called "villains". The "volunteers" often appear to be desperate, in that their situation seems to be one of dire straits. It is openly stated that the "villains" are growing more powerful and the "volunteers" weaker; however, the epilogue of the thirteenth and final book suggests that after the events therein, the "volunteer" half of the organization seems to have survived or recovered, while the "villain" half has returned to its former power, or possibly both sides have been fragmented.

The protagonists of the series (Violet Baudelaire, Klaus Baudelaire and Sunny Baudelaire) discover that their parents were members of this secret organization, as were many of the guardians they were placed with after their parents' death, along with various other people they encountered throughout the books.

It should be noted that most V.F.D. members maintain libraries, and of course the natural enemy of a library is a fire.