Procedures by which the State Fire and Rescue Service Performs and Manages the Fire-fighting and Rescue Operations

Issued pursuant to
Section 25, Paragraph two
of the Fire Safety and Fire-fighting Law

1. This Regulation prescribes the procedures by which the State Fire and Rescue Service shall perform and manage the fire-fighting and rescue operations.

2. The State Fire and Rescue Service shall be notified of an event via the single emergency phone number "112".

3. The State Fire and Rescue Service shall involve the following institutions and services in the fire-fighting and rescue operations:

3.1. the fire safety, fire-fighting and rescue services of institutions, organisations, commercial companies and local governments, and the voluntary fire-fighter organisations;

3.2. the State Police;

3.3. the municipal police;

3.4. the State Border Guard;

3.5. the National Armed Forces;

3.6. the State Emergency Medical Service;

3.7. emergency services (for example, gas emergency service, electrical transmission network emergency service, elevator emergency service).

4. Upon receipt of the notification referred to in Paragraph 2 of this Regulation, the State Fire and Rescue Service shall despatch a subunit of the nearest fire station or post of the State Fire and Rescue Service to the place of the event. If the subunit of the nearest fire station or post of the State Fire and Rescue Service is occupied at another place of event, the subunit of the next nearest fire station or post of the State Fire and Rescue Service shall be despatched. If necessary, the institutions and services referred to in Paragraph 3 of this Regulation shall be involved in the fire-fighting and rescue operations.

5. The subunits of the State Fire and Rescue Service shall depart from the garage of the fire station or post within 90 seconds after being despatched to the place of the event.

6. After departure from the nearest fire station or post of the State Fire and Rescue Service the subunit shall arrive at the place of the event:

6.1. in a republic city, city or village where a fire station or post of the State Fire and Rescue Service is located - within eight minutes;

6.2. in a city, village, territory of a municipality or a parish where a fire station or post of the State Fire and Rescue Service is not located - within 23 minutes.

7. The subunit of the State Fire and Rescue Service may arrive at the place of the event later than specified in Paragraph 6 of this Regulation if:

7.1. the arrival has been delayed by force majeure circumstances;

7.2. a natural or man-made disaster has occurred;

7.3. several notifications of several events within the region for which the fire station or post is responsible have been received;

7.4. on the way to the place of the event traffic complications have occurred (for example, heavy traffic, closed railway crossing, traffic accident, bad quality of the road surface, there are no access roads, technical failures of the vehicle);

7.5. the received notification of an event is not related to a fire and the human life or health is not at risk.

8. When managing the fire-fighting and rescue operations, the manager (incident commander) of such operations shall give oral orders and control their execution.

9. At the place of the event the following priority order of the fire-fighting and rescue operations shall be complied with:

9.1. rescue and evacuation of persons;

9.2. elimination of threats of explosion, collapse of a building or structure, or leakage of hazardous substance;

9.3. containment of the spread of fire or hazardous factors that have arisen as a result of the accident.

10. If there are injured persons at the place of the event, until the moment when an emergency medical care team of the State Emergency Medical Service arrives, the first aid shall be provided by the official of the State Fire and Rescue Service with special rank.

11. The Cabinet Regulation No. 61 of 3 February 2004, Procedures by which the State Fire and Rescue Service Performs and Manages the Fire-fighting and Rescue Operations (Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2004, No. 20), is repealed.

Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis

Minister for the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis

Translation © 2018 Valsts valodas centrs (State Language Centre)