Role of fire in local government

Through the adventure that started with the discovery of fire, mankind sometimes submitted to the power of fire and sometimes managed to satisfy their needs, benefiting from the many uses of fire. Fire became an essential need and proved to be beneficial for human life. The better mankind got to know fire, the harder the ordeal became. On one hand, fire helps people satisfy many of their needs when used under control. On the other hand, as a source of destruction to nature, fire can cause irreparable damage when it is out of control. In this context, fire can turn into destructive fire incidents that never do and never will fail to damage human lives. One of the most needed principles of local administration and decentralization is the knowhow of the ways to overcome natural disasters and fire emergencies. This problem requires decentralization principle of providing service in case of natural disasters and fire. Since in such a case what matters is the loss of life and property and sustained life safety. Thus, it is essential to be able to take all the local measures to create a safe region, a safe city and a safe country; and respond to disasters fast and efficiently. This is especially important in case of fire, emergency and natural disasters and it's only thanks to the measures taken by the local governments that the situation is handled faster and more economically. Therefore, in developed countries and in Turkey, municipalities have the authority to combat fire which causes a huge loss of lives and property. In the first part, it is intended to give information regarding the historical development process of fire fighting. In the second part of our study, information on local city fire brigade, volunteer fire brigades and private fire brigades working under Metropolitan, City or District municipalities and carrying out fire and search and rescue operations has been provided and information has also been released on applicable legislation, various definitions, tools and equipment necessary for fire brigade services, station as well as on the anatomy, reasons, types of fire, fire-fighting equipments, fundamentals of fire fighting. The organizations and institutions carrying out fire and search and rescue operations in the forest areas, airfields, seas and vessels of our country were introduced, and the ideas has been exchanged in order to carry out more active and efficient interventions to activities. In the third part of our study, the importance of conducting fire brigade services locally in accordance with the principle of utilization of the nearest service unit to the region where incident takes place has been explained and I am also of the opinion that expansion of service responsibility areas up to provincial borders of the Metropolitan Municipalities whose number has reached by 30 via the amendments made in 5216 numbered Metropolitan Municipality law has also paved the way for higher quality in the fire brigade service. In addition, following the information release on fire brigade models applied in the world and Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency in our county, the information on Istanbul fire brigade operations were given by taking Istanbul Fire Brigade Department in Local Governments as a model since the fire brigade history of our country is known as the Istanbul Fire Brigade.Finally, general and occupational challenges of the profession were tried to be explained. Key words: Local governments, fire department, duty and responsibilities