Fire Services in Austria 2025: Fewer Deployments, More Members
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Austria’s fire services responded to significantly fewer incidents in 2025, as severe and widespread extreme weather events—such as those seen the previous year—largely did not occur. Once again, membership numbers increased.
In a direct comparison between 2025 and the particularly deployment-intensive year of 2024, a sharp decline in incidents is evident:
In total, Austrian fire services recorded 254,598 deployments last year. Of these, 164,518 were technical operations (traffic accidents, storm events, flooding, hazardous material releases, etc.), and 64,991 were fire incidents. A further 25,089 were classified as other types of responses. Overall, this represents 84,918 fewer deployments than in the previous year.
Technical operations in particular—due to the absence of especially severe and widespread natural events—declined significantly, by 82,481. Fire incidents remained nearly unchanged (-242).
Fire President Robert Mayer commented on the figures:
“The number of deployments normalized again in 2025. After the severe weather situations in 2024, Austrian fire services experienced a more balanced year in 2025. Fewer deployments do not necessarily mean a quieter year: the number of people and animals rescued speaks for itself, and the complexity and intensity of operations are usually not reflected in statistics. The necessary effort in operational preparedness is also not captured in statistics, even though it accounts for the largest share of the work.”
More Than 10,500 People and Nearly 7,000 Animals Rescued
The number of people and animals rescued is particularly striking: in 2025, Austrian fire services rescued 10,775 people and 6,557 animals (excluding data from Vienna and Vorarlberg).
Continued Strong Interest in Volunteer Service
In 2025, Austrian fire services once again recorded a slight increase in membership. In particular, young people are being successfully recruited into volunteer service through youth fire brigades.
According to the latest statistics, there are currently 357,187 fire service members in Austria (+1,808 compared to 2024). The number of active members declined slightly to 257,081 (-993 compared to 2024), while youth membership increased: with a rise of 993 to a total of 38,713 girls and boys, interest among young people aged 8 to 16 remains strong.
The reserve ranks grew by 1,808 members in 2025, reaching 61,393. Around one-third of this increase is due to the fact that Vorarlberg included reserve personnel in its statistics for the first time last year. Approximately 99% of fire service members in Austria continue to serve on a voluntary, unpaid basis.
The proportion of women in Austrian fire services has also increased again: with an additional 2,280 girls and women, the total now stands at 38,283, representing around 11% of the overall workforce. While there is still room for growth, the positive trend of recent years continues. Since 2008, the number of female fire service members has increased by 206%.
The total number of fire departments in Austria currently stands at 4,752 (4,438 volunteer fire departments, including two at universities; 308 industrial fire brigades; and six professional fire departments).
Robert Mayer commented on membership development:
“The encouraging growth in youth fire brigades continues thanks to the strong and outstanding commitment of all youth leaders. The positive trend among women is also continuing, significantly strengthening active service in the fire brigades. A largely stable membership base is of great importance, and we must continue to focus intensively on this issue in the coming years. I would like to thank all members of Austria’s fire services for their tremendous and impressive commitment and personal dedication.”
For any inquiries, I remain at your disposal.
Kind regards,
Andreas Rieger
Head of Communications Staff Unit, Austrian Federal Fire Service Association
Head of Department 1.3 – Public Relations and Awareness
Head of Competence Center for Communication
Managing Director, ÖBFV Medien GmbH
Illustration Credits:
Graphic in the cover image was provided by the Austrian Fire Services. The illutration below is generated by Cha1t GPT from a prompt by Bjorn Ulfson.
