Danish Emergency Management Agency

The Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) ( da, Beredskabsstyrelsen) is a Danish governmental agency under the Ministry of Defence. 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 advises 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.

History

By the ''Danish Preparedness Act'' (''Beredskabsloven''), which came into force on 1 January 1992, the former WW2 era wartime civil defense corps was changed into a peacetime "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 on 1 March 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 1 April 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 1 February 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.

DEMA and the public

When the Civil Air Defense was created the vehicles were 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 were 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 extent. The uniforms were 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 sometimes, 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 deployment 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 as 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.

Emergency Operations

Municipal fire departments

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 were 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 does not have to do the firefighting themselves, and a large part of the fire department services are done by the private firm Falck A/S.

Regional Support Centers

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 450 conscripts every 9 months.

Unlike the military where the normal service length is 4 months and there are no operational tasks, conscription service in DEMA is 9 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:
* Firefighting
* Rescue and USAR
* Advanced first aid, patient assessment and treatment (On EMT-B level)
* Communications
* Heavy vehicle usage (All conscripts must have a normal drivers license before starting, and are offered a lorry-license for free)
* HAZMAT

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:
* Beredskabsstyrelsen Nordjylland (Thisted