CFA History

The Fire Brigades Act 1890 created two boards,  a Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board (MFBB) for the Metropolitan Fire   District and a Country Fire Brigades Board (CFBB) to embrace the nine  Country Fire Districts. The Act laid the foundations for the CFBB by  giving it extensive powers and responsibilities of fire brigades based   more than 16 kilometres from Melbourne. The CFBB officially came into  being on 1 January 1891.

In 1926, the Bush Fire Brigades were formed following   serious bushfires. They consisted entirely of volunteer members, were administered by the State Forests Department, had only scant power to carry out fire prevention measures and received little of no financial  assistance from the Government.

Following serious fires across Victoria in 1939, a Royal  Commission recommended a single firefighting organisation for country   Victoria. The devastation of the 1944 fires emphasised the urgency of   better coordination of country fire services. Legislation was passed   to establish a country fire authority and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) commenced operation from 2 April 1945.

CFA has now evolved to become one of the worlds largest volunteer based emergency services. There are currently 1218 CFA brigades servicing the operational areas throughout regional Victoria (except state forests and parks) and outer metropolitan Melbourne. In recent times CFAs responsibilities for responding to urban and transport risks have grown substantially.

The ties between CFA and state government, local government, industry and brigades are essential to the successful operation of CFA. As a community service organisation, CFA brigades are strongly supported by their local communities and CFA infrastructure in  responding to meet Victoria?s fire safety and emergency management  needs.