The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) serves all of Western Australia (WA) by working together to achieve a safer State.

DFES was established on 1 November 2012 to protect property and lives in WA. The department performs a critical role in coordinating emergency services to respond to natural disasters and incidents.

Our objective is to safeguard all Western Australians by serving and protecting the community before, during, and after an emergency.

Refer to our Strategic Plan 2020-2024 (PDF) for more information.

Working together to keep our State safe

DFES employs over 1,600 operational personnel and corporate staff. DFES has an extensive network of more than 26,000 volunteers who generously donate their time to deliver essential emergency services to the WA community.

DFES collaborates with local communities and other government agencies to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural hazards. These include bushfires, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, severe weather and floods.

DFES is the designated Hazard Management Agency for the following eight hazards:

For more information on DFES’s role within the Western Australian Hazard Management Structure visit State Emergency Management Committee.

We work closely with the WA Police Force and St John Ambulance Australia to assist with road emergencies and coordinate search and rescue missions, both on land and at sea. Our Department also provides expert emergency management advice to local, state, and national stakeholders.

DFES has a multidisciplinary workforce spanning a broad range of sectors and skills. Our people play an essential role in making WA a safer place. Together with our partners, we deliver emergency management services to the largest jurisdiction in Australia. We work around the clock to protect the lives and property of 2.5 million Western Australians.

In addition to our corporate staff, the following career and volunteer groups work tirelessly to provide essential emergency services support to the community.

Our organisational structure

Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner

Executive
1. Operations
  1. Metropoliton Operations
  2. Country Operations
  3. Operations Capability
2. Strategy and Emergency Management
  1. Learning and Development
  2. Legal, Policy and Compliance
  3. Resilience and Recovery
  4. Risk, Capability and Analysis
  5. Strategy and Governance
Professional Standards
1. Corporate Services
  1. Asset Management
  2. Business Services (Chief Finance Officer)
  3. Human Resources and Safety Services
  4. Information and Communications Technology
  5. Media and Corporate Communications
2. Rural Fire Division
  1. Bushfire Centre of Excellence
  2. Bushfire Risk Management Planning
  3. Bushfire Technical Services
  4. Land Use Planning
  5. Office of Bushfire Risk Management

Our executive team

Commissioner Darren Klemm AFSM has more than 30 years of experience in fire and emergency services, having served three years with the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service before joining the WA Fire Brigades Board in 1993.

Since joining the Fire Brigades' Board, Commissioner Klemm has been one of WA’s rising stars in public administration and management.

During his time as Commissioner, the Department has experienced transformation in operations that have strengthened community centred service delivery and its connection and respect for volunteers. To achieve this, the Commissioner travelled thousands of kilometres across the State, hearing from volunteers, staff, and the community about what was working and where opportunities existed. He has also successfully reformed DFES to create its first dedicated Rural Fire Division, decentralising and improving bushfire management. This was backed by unprecedented government investment in mitigation and has resulted in improved relationships with volunteers and stakeholders and greater interagency collaboration.

In 2017, Commissioner Klemm was invited by the Premier of Western Australia to join the inaugural Public Sector Leadership Council to drive reform across the public sector. In June 2019, he was awarded the Leader of the Year Award by the Institute of Public Administration Australia.

Commissioner Klemm is the DFES Champion of Change, a role he has held since the inception of the Fire and Emergency Services Champions of Change group in April 2017. The group includes Chief Executives and Commissioners who lead 30+ agencies responsible for fire, emergency and land management services across Australia and New Zealand. Their objective is to advance gender equity and inclusive cultures and achieve significant and sustainable improvements in the representation of women at all organisational levels throughout their workplaces and volunteer organisations.

The Commissioner’s vision is at the core of everything we do – resilient WA communities that work together to build capability and capacity to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Commissioner Klemm is a member of several state and national committees concerned with emergency management in Australia and holds a Graduate Certificate in Management from the Australian Institute of Management.