The Oslo Fire Department was officially organized in 1861, and currently protects 500,000 residents. There are eight fire stations, including a harbor station. The department's 418 employees include 305 in the firefighting force, 85 staff employees, and 28 in the chimney swift section. Firefighters work in shifts: daytime from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., night shift from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., and a 24-hour shift every second weekend. 

Oslo's 93 square miles of forest put the department in a unique situation compared with other capital fire departments in Europe — one week they have a fire in a 30-story building in downtown Oslo, and the next week they fight fire in the forest, far from people and roads.

 

The above information was provided by Roy Larsen of the Oslo Fire Department.

See Larsen's unofficial Oslo Fire Department website, Station 1.

There's more on the Oslo Fire Department in Larsen's article, Viking Firefighters, located on the Wildfire News website.

And, there's now an official page for Oslo's Fire and Rescue Service.

 

See the unofficial website of the Drammen Fire Department — which bills itself as the best department in the city (and the only one).

 

Visit Roy Jacobsen's page on the Kristiansand Fire Department.

 


See the Unoffical Homepage for Tønsberg Fire Department, serving Norway's oldest town. The site was constructed by Ivar Eeg-Nielsen, leading firefighter, and Paal Christian Eeg-Nielsen.

Read about the Norwegian Air Ambulance

Return to the "Miscellany" section of the Norwegian American Homepage