page_title: New South Wales Rural Fire Service
section_title: Volunteer brigades, 1896–1936
hierarchical_section_title: New South Wales Rural Fire Service / History / Volunteer brigades, 1896–1936
caption_attribution_description: Memorial for the establishment of the first brigade of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service in Berrigan, New South Wales.
context_page_description: The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is a volunteer-based firefighting agency and statutory body of the Government of New South Wales.
  The NSW RFS is responsible for fire protection in 95% of the land area of New South Wales and the Jervis Bay Territory, while urban areas are the responsibility of Fire and Rescue NSW. The NSW RFS is the primary agency for responding to bushfires in the state. In addition, they respond to structural fires, vehicle fires, motor vehicle accidents and wide range of other emergencies, as well as providing preventative advice to local communities.
  The NSW RFS is the world's largest volunteer fire service, with 72,491 volunteer members, although this figure includes many inactive volunteer firefighters and all support volunteers. They are organised into 2,002 brigades. As of 30 June 2018, the service employed 911 paid staff who fulfill senior operational management and administrative roles. The agency attends to approximately 27,000 incidents per annum.
  The agency is led by its Commissioner, Rob Rogers AFSM, who reports to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, currently the Hon. David Elliott MP.
context_section_description: Organised control of bush fires began with the establishment of the first volunteer bush fire brigades at Berrigan in 1896. This brigade had been established in response to a series of large fires in northern Victoria and south western New South Wales in the 1890s. These culminated in the Red Tuesday fire of 1 February 1898 in Gippsland that claimed 12 lives and destroyed 2000 buildings.
  In 1916 the Local Government Act provided for the prevention and mitigation of bush fires by authorising local councils to establish, manage and maintain these brigades. The establishment of the Bush Fires Act in 1930 granted local councils the authority to appoint bush fire officers with powers comparable to those held by a Chief Officer of the NSW Fire Brigades. These Fire Control Officers were responsible for bush fire management within their appointed local council districts.
caption: RFS memorial in Berrigan commemorating the establishment of the first bush fire brigade in New South Wales.
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