Voluntary firefighting in terms of contribution to the financing of municipality services in Turkey

Determining their nature in Turkey, it was tried to determine what kind of contributions voluntary firefighting practices, which are an important stakeholder of disaster manegement, make prior to any disaster, during it and after it. Our research is important for determining and developing methods and strategies for the development of the practice based on the past Ottoman Fire Brigade, which plays an important role in the development of our country and to become a resilient society, which contributes significantly to the resistance, strength and rehabilitation of the society in extraordinary situations such as disasters. Our research was carried out for voluntary firefighting practices created within the municipal fire brigades. Within the framework of the financing of municipal services, it has been tried to explain how voluntary firefighting practices contributed to the national economy. In order to evaluate the volunteer firefighting practices in our country, in-depth interviews were made with the fire brigade officials of three metropolitan municipalities in total, especially the provinces of Kocaeli and Istanbul, which are known to be pioneers in volunteer firefighting practices. Officials from the three institutions participating in the interview were asked to make evaluations for volunteer firefighting applications which have been formed within the municipalities in Turkey, and 10 questions were asked about how this practice contributed to our country and municipalities and what should be done to encourage voluntary participation and to spread this practice. With this research, it has been determined that voluntary firefighting practices implemented in our country have direct and indirect contributions to municipal services. It was determined that voluntary participants make many material and moral contributions to our society due to effective missions they undertake at all stages of disasters such as preparation, response, recovery and mitigation of damages, and that the voluntary firefighting practices in Turkey have not yet reached the required level. Suggestions for the widespread use of this practice and increasing voluntary participation are included in the results and recommendations section.