Fire services in Lisbon are organized under a quite unique pattern.Within city boundaries a fully professional municipal Dept,responding from 10 full-time manned Stations (the RSB), co-exists with 7 independent single-Station volunteer Depts , operated by private benevolent Organizations and manned by non-paid although duly trained personnel.

RSB takes the fire calls ,operates a centralized Dispatch and is first due in all incidents.Volunteer Depts(pre-detailed ,at first alarms ,for certain city areas) turn out by orders of RSB’s Dispatch Room if manpower is available in the Station at the time of alarm(always at non working hours but occasionally only at day prime time).

Volunteer Depts in Lisbon perform thus " auxiliary" duties ,regarding the main RSB responsibility on City fire safety .

A typical working fire 1^st alarm response will bring to the incident 4 RSB vehicles with about 15 men plus 1 vehicle and 3 to 5 men from the local Volunteer Dept(should these be available).
At the fire scene volunteer personnel is usually ordered to merely assist or back-up their professional colleagues or even just standing-by.In most cases,namely at small fires,the Volunteer Dept does not even stretch its own lines.
On the other hand,since mobilizing the Volunteer Dept is not the first priority of the Dispatcher and also because the Station may be quite far away from the incident location,Volunteer rigs are usually the last pieces of equipment to arrive at the fire scene,often when services are no longer required …

Under these circumstances it is not difficult to imagine that there may be some " bottom line frustration" among Volunteer Firefighters on account of not having many opportunities to actually and fully perform what they enjoy to do and made themselves available for, in their own free time :fighting fires!

For a few of these brave guys however one day,many years ago,has been "the day"!

I used to live near Praça de Espanha Square in central Lisbon.In those old days the current traffic hub linking South and North accesses to city center was not such a nice place as it is today.Some old houses and vacant lots only filled then the space, with much room left for illegal occupancy.Some jobless or homeless people had even erected wooden huts and used to live there.

As I walked home one afternoon,passing by Praça de Espanha I clearly noticed that one of such huts was on fire.Soon I heard the sound of a fire rig siren and I immediatly saw approaching,at good speed,one modern medium Pumper of Lisbonenses Volunteer Fire Dept,by far the best equipped and manned Volunteer Dept in town.

To my great surprise, however,not one sign of RSB’s first due task force response…

Next instant,the VFD Engine drove over the sidewalk,crossed the vacant lot and stopped by the hut.The 4 or 5 volunteer crew ,in a very professional fashion,very quick and effectively stretched two booster 25 mm diam. lines and water started pouring out from the nozzles in almost no time.

I swear I could hear,in that moment, the guys thinking loudly:"thank you God for letting us do this job on our own"…

As I was amazingly watching this unusual routine,from about 100 meters distance, I suddenly noticed one 3rdGrade VFf running towards the place I was standing , holding one flexible 50 mm diam. hose roll under one arm and handing one 4-keys hydrant wrench in the other hand.
There was nobody else around and so the Firefighter adressed me while still running:

-Are you familiar with this location?Will you please help me find a hydrant?

In that instant I realized the problem:That type of medium Pumper carries about

3000 to 4000 liters of water.At a rate of 1000 lit/min very soon they would be running out of water.
The fire was in a scarcely urbanized location,away from the main water pipping and no other rigs were even at sight(or sound…)with therefore little hope for extra water on wheels.

I helped as I could,trying to remember where the hell some hidden ground hydrant might be,possibly concealed by vegetation or garbage.Each one of us,Firefighter and me,scanned the ground in one different direction with not much luck however, I’m afraid...

I swear again I could hear the young Firefighter praying loudly in his thoughts as he searched:"God please,let me find a hydrant this instant"!

Eventually approaching sirens were heard and the RSB’s 1^st alarm task force arrived to the fire scene with 1 Light Pumper,1 Medium Pumper and 1 Tanker.
They were greeted by a very proud team of Volunteer Firefighters,showing a job practically done as only light grey smoke was pouring from the hut, with no visible flames.
The 1stGrade Volunteer Firefighter in charge reported to the incoming Officer,who took over and ordered the Tanker to feed the Volunteer Pumper and one of RSBs rigs,basically to perform the overhaul routine.

The explanation for this alteration of the usual order of events is simple:The RSB Station covering the Praça de Espanha box was far away from it,with not so good accesses at the time.The Lisbonenses VFD Station location,although about 2 Miles away from the incident ,allowed however for a fast trip with sirens on along wide and linear- designed Avenues as they are.As the VFD Station was manned at the time of the alarm the result was that, very excepcionally,on that day the first responding rig in the City of Lisbon was from a Volunteer Dept.

And the job was well done ...in spite of certain two good-willing citizens being unable to find a hydrant,to their great and eternal regret!

J.L.(1998)