RESPONSE PROCEDURES / ALARM LEVELS FOR THE LISBON FD
The Lisbon Municipal Fire Department (RSB) typically sends fifteen (15) firefighters to a usual building working fire. The typical rig assignment will be : 1 light pumper with 1 officer and 4 firefighters - plus - 1 medium pumper with 1 sub-officer and 5 firefighters - plus - 1 aerial ladder truck with 2 firefighters - plus - 1 fire department ambulance with 2 firefighters - plus - 1 nearby, pre-detailed, volunteer fire battalion's light or medium pumper (with 2 to 5 men), if any manpower is available at T.O.C. .
If additional units are required, a second alarm will bring an additional combination of vehicles that will depend on the type of incident that is being handled and that are always specifically requested by the incident commander, such as : "2 medium pumpers and 2 water tender/water tankers "or "1 pumper, l tanker and 1 ladder", etc. Volunteer Depts will also contribute with some of this equipment according to instant manpower availability.
A third alarm will bring a high ranking chief officer to the scene in order to determine the appropriate level of resources needed to handle the situation.At such time Volunteer Depts will respond citywide.
"Mutual aid zones "have been up throughout Portugal ,with one major Fire Department in each zone acting as the Coordination Center. Most coordination takes place on the telephone as a nationwide radio system does not exist for the fire service.
Within Lisbon city boundaries, the cordinating dept is the fully professional RSB, ruling over the 7 co-existing local volunteer FDs.