Welcome to the Fire Department of Biel / Bienne, Switzerland.

The Fire Service of Biel/Bienne is responding to about 700 calls a year. The first response is guaranteed 24hrs a day by 5 professional firefighters. Within 2 minutes, the engine leaves the station to any call.

The professional team counts 28 men and women and are divided in 3 shifts. While shift 1 starts its duty at 7a.m. for the next 24 hrs, shifts 2 and 3 have off.

Our fire service is also operated by volunteers but paid firefighters. The "Pikett" company is divided in 3 sections and their 60 members can be called during their duty week to assist the professionals. A third unit called "Extinguish" company with another 60 firefighers with a basic training can be alarmed if needed. Professionals and volunteers are fully co-operating on the incident scene.

The Fire Service of Biel/Bienne is responding from its only station located in downtown, not only for fires, but also for car extrications, HAZMAT, technical help and rope rescue. At the station, there are 20 different rigs, from the engines to the tower ladders and the HAZMAT trucks. There are also a big smoke blower mounted on a truck and a crane for special rescues. The ambulance service is guaranteed by another service, as our fire service has no paramedics.

The city of Biel/Bienne as a population of 53'000 (100'000 with the region). The specificity of Biel/Bienne is the bilingual status. This means that both German and French are recognized as official languages.

In Switzerland, the emergency number for fire is 118. However, the European emergency number 112 can also be used.

This is a résumé only to give in English an idea of what our Fire Service is. The whole internet home page is written in German and French only