Fighting the flames. Evaluation report: Institutionalising a Volunteer First Responder Service in Armenia
Many countries around the world now find themselves exposed to a dramatic increase in wildfire risk. Especially where response capacity is limited, this represents a huge challenge for fire services. In Armenia, which has on-duty fire services mainly in cities and towns, capacity in rural areas tends to be thin. The VolFiRe project sought to expand capacity by forming a volunteer-based fire service in rural communities. As the new evaluation report illustrates, it succeeded in sustainably increasing capacity — leading to reduced damages and losses from incidents. The experience has several lessons for countries with similar contexts.
The VolFiRe project (‘Institutionalising a Volunteer Fire Responder Service in Armenia’) trained and equipped 13 Volunteer Fire Rescue Groups (VFRG), which now complement the capacity of 60 staff-based fire stations across the country. In 2025, VFRGs already responded to 120 fire and other emergencies — helping to save assets due to faster response times (by an average of 33.5 minutes). The project was implemented between 2022 and 2026 by a consortium of Austrian Red Cross, Armenian Red Cross Society, Caritas Austria and Armenian Caritas with funding from the Austrian Development Agency.
Read the full evaluation report and/or the 4-page summary with key lessons.