The modern Fire & Rescue Service in Guernsey embraces all of the aspects of fire fighting and fire prevention as do our U.K. colleagues. However, Guernsey cannot benefit from any early assistance from a neighbouring Service and therefore has to be self-sufficient. The major fire risk in the Island is the town area of St Peter Port with ‘special risks’ such as the oil depots; power station; prison; airport; harbour and hospitals.

In addition to extinguishing fires the Service attends many other incidents, which are classed as Special Services. These include:-

• Road Traffic Accidents
• Assisting property owners after storm damage or flooding
• Chemical incidents.

The Service has a significant role to play in the area of Fire Safety. If possible it is much better to prevent a fire from occurring and therefore save people from distress and perhaps injury or worse. To this end the Fire Safety Department seeks to advise about the reasonable safety measures that should be adopted by property owners so as to safeguard people using particular buildings, and The Fire Services (Guernsey) Law 1989 adds the force of law to this effort.

All Service members, both operational, and those in the Fire Safety Department are involved in a continual process of educating members of the public in matters of fire safety. Community Fire Safety is gradually changing the emphasis of a Firefighters role from firefighting (cure) to fire safety (prevention).