There are a total of sixty seven stations in Northern Ireland, eight of which are full-time, six are full-time with part-time backups, fifty two stations are part time and one on Rathlin Island is crewed by volunteers. The Service is organised into four 'Area Commands', Western, Southern, Northern and Eastern, which covers Greater Belfast, the training centre is located off Boucher Road, South Belfast and the Headquarters is in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. Every firefighter is trained to deal with all types of fire as well as traffic collisions, building collapses, and specialist rescues. The Service is also the enforcing authority for fire safety legislation.
As with other fire and rescue services in the UK, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service has been the target of frequent attacks while attending incidents. Typically this ranges from verbal abuse, spitting, young people throwing stones to more serious attacks using petrol bombs and even gun attacks in the past.2 The brigade lost a number of firemen during the Troubles, including one shot while tackling a blaze during the loyalist strike of 1973.3
