| Established | December 23, 1992 |
| Activated | January 1, 1993 |
| Director | Henning Thiesen |
| Budget (2005) | 496 million DKK |
| Homepage | www.brs.dk |
| Employees | 600 staff ~750 conscripts every 6 months 400 volunteers |
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Logo of DEMA, when on International operations. |
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The Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) (Danish: Beredskabsstyrelsen) is a Danish governmental agency under the Ministry of Defence[1]. Its principal task is to manage an operational part who work out of six Emergency Management Centres, and administrative and legalizing part, who supervises the national and municipal rescue preparedness and advices the authorities on matters of preparedness. DEMA works in closely structured co-operation with the EU, UN and several neighbouring countries.
DEMA is capable of deploying abroad on request from another state or an international organisation. The decision to render assistance is taken in co-counsel with the Danish Foreign Ministry. DEMA can give support in instances of natural disasters and accidents, technological events and crises and civil wars. It is able to react quickly in acute situations and leave its home base within hours on smaller missions, and have the ability to deploy a mobile hospital in only 24 hours[2].
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By the Danish Preparedness Act (Beredskabsloven) [3], which came into force on January 1, 1992, the former WW2 era wartime civil defense corps was changed into a peace time "Emergency Management Agency", that could primarily work in peacetime.
The Danish Emergency Management Agency was created out of the two agencies responsible for these former services, namely "Civilforsvarsstyrelsen" (Civil Defense Agency) and "Statens Brandinspektion" (Governmental Fire Inspection Agency).
The Civil Defence was created March 1, 1938, as the State Civil Air Defence (Statens civile luftværn) and was under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior. The name Civil Defence dates from the first Civil Defence law of April 1, 1949.
The municipal fire services and the Governmental Fire Inspection Agency was under the Ministry of Justice.
The new Danish Emergency Management Agency came under the responsibility of Ministry of the Interior, however as of February 1, 2004 it is under the Ministry of Defence.
By means of a number of political agreements supported widely by the parties in the Danish Parliament, the rescue preparedness has been continuously developed and adapted to the changing demands made by the society and the changes in the security-policy situation.
When the Civil Air Defense was created the vehicles where old gray trucks, and this truck-color was kept for many years. The uniform of the Civil Air Defense, and later the Civil Defense was also kept gray, with orange shoulders and blue triangles - The international icon for civil protection.
Later the vehicles was painted orange to show that it is a true Civil Defense agency and still are this color - Denmark being one of the only nations left still using the Civil Defense colors and logo to this extend. The uniforms where modernized in the year 2000, and the old gray uniform was replaced by a new dark blue uniform, called M/2000. The uniform has been edited some times, and a new rescue-uniform was created in 2009 for USAR teams. The M/2000 is being replaced by a new uniform currently under development.
When on international deplyment the DEMA often uses discrete civilian clothing, mostly in a sand/brown color. Experiences have shown that the dark blue uniform may often be mistaken af military or police in other countries, and this has given some unfortunate situations.
The only current deployment where the uniform is used is the UNIFIL deployment in Lebanon, where a special uniform has been developed for the hot climate.
Although DEMA hasn't been called Civil Defense (Civilforsvaret) for more than 15 years, the general public still often refers to it as the Civil Defense, and a lot don't know what DEMA is.
The primary firefighting work in Denmark are done by municipal fire departments and all municipalities are required by law to have a fire department. Before 1992 the municipal fire department where controlled by "Statens Brandinspektion" (Governmental Fire Inspection Agency), but with the law-change in 1992 the responsibility was given to the Civil Preparedness Division of DEMA.
The municipalities doesn't have to do the firefighting themselves, and a large part of the fire department services are done by the private firm Falck A/S.
The agency has a staff of some 600 people. About 170 of these are employed in the central Emergency Management Agency in Birkerød. The rest are employed at the agency’s six centers and two schools. It is possible to do conscription-service for the Danish military in the operational section of DEMA and the agency has around 750 conscripts every 6 months.
Unlike the military where the normal service length is 4 months and there are no operational tasks, conscription service in DEMA is 6 months in length. Also the conscripts are made part of the national emergency response after 1 month of service and are often participation in firefighting and rescue operations. The conscripts get a full firefighters education and are trained in the following fields:
The Emergency Management Centers are located all over the country and almost every part of the country can be reached within one hour of receiving the alarm. The centers are located in:
The primary function of the above centers are to assist municipal fire departments at major fires, assist to police, and to take care of the danish nuclear fallout preparedness, HazMat preparedness, USAR/rescue preparedness and all other relevant tasks.
Beredskabsstyrelsen Hedehusene is a 100% volunteer center the only exception being the chief officer and some teachers offering courses to private rescue firms. All the other centers are manned by conscripts who are controlled by a single officer and a couple of sergeants.
Besides from the regional support centers there are also some minor support points that have equipment paid for by DEMA, but are manned by municipal volunteer firefighters. These support points are, like the regional support points, support centers for the municipal fire departments in case of major fires and other emergencies.
The Municipal Support Centers are located at:
DEMA has participated in several international operations since the beginning of the 90's. Some notable missions are:
The Nuclear Division's responsibilities include:
The chemical division's responsibilities include:
The Danish Preparedness Act stipulates that each ministry, agency, or other authority in the Danish government is required to carry out relevant planning within their respective sector to deal with a serious adverse impact on critical functions of society. CPD helps facilitate planning within the different sectors and the coordination between the different sectors. This includes responsibility for national emergency planning, publication of guidance materials, courses, and other activities to strengthen the cooperation between the different actors in the Danish civil preparedness establishment.
Most recently the education for both firefighters and firechiefs has been completely revised in 2009 and 2010.