The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS) is the fire service for metropolitan and urban South Australia, as well as large townships. The Metropolitan Fire Service is constituted under the Fire and Emergency Services Act.
The MFS has 36 fire stations and over 1,000 personnel in Adelaide and across South Australia in major rural centres.[1] It also has one marine vessel. The MFS has a series of responsibilities ranging from roadcrash rescue through to vertical rescue, confined space, land based swift water and urban search and rescue along with its key responsibility of firefighting. The MFS often work alongside other key stakeholders such as the State Emergency Service and the Country Fire Service, often with those agencies sharing stations. While the MFS is USAR qualified and maintains the USAR taskforce, the State Emergency Service makes up a key aspect of the USAR taskforce meaning if a USAR incident occurs they will be corresponded in order to make up the required numbers and resources to adequately attend the incident.
History
The South Australian Fire Brigade was formed in 1882, following the passing of the Fire Brigades Act. In 1981 the service was renamed South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service when it became government funded.
