The Scottish Government

• There are eight Scottish Fire and Rescue Services, combined they have a total of 8,310 firefighters and control room staff
• Firefighters are divided into different duty systems: wholetime; retained and volunteer.
  
  Wholetime personnel are full time employees, working a shift system usually made up of two day shifts; two night shifts and 4 days off (though other shift patterns do exist)
  
  Retained personnel are part time employees who respond to pagers when required for duty. They also attend weekly training sessions (often called drill nights) at their local station. Retained firefighters must either live or work within the local fire station area in order to be able to quickly respond to calls
  
  Volunteer firefighters are usually based in very remote rural areas
• Scotland has a total of 388 fire stations or volunteer units. The types of stations vary from city centre multi pump stations and rural one pump retained stations to remote rural volunteer units where the equipment may be kept in a small garage
• Types of fire appliances or engines also varies. The Scottish operational fleet is currently 596 vehicles. These range from the newest combined aerial rescue pumps (ARPs) and traditional pumping appliances to specialised vehicles such as high volume pumps and heavy rescue equipment

Sources for information:

• Getting a job in the fire and rescue service - the eight services are responsible for recruitment within their own area and do advertise periodically in local press. More information on recruitment can be found on the individual service websites
• Getting information about fire safety in the home - The Scottish national fire safety campaign Don't Give Fire a Home has its own website with lots of useful information. Community fire safety officers at local fire and rescue services also give advice; contact details are available on the Don't Give Fire a Home site
• Getting information about fire safety in non-domestic properties - The Scottish Government Firelaw website can provide you with lots of information to help you comply with your responsibilities.