Fire fighting in Finland is regulated by the Ministry of the Interior. Municipalities of Finland can choose whether the fire and rescue services are provided by a professional fire brigade, a half-ordinary fire brigade or a voluntary fire brigade. Half-ordinary and voluntary fire brigades rely on non-professional voluntary fire fighters who have been trained appropriately. The main responsibilities of fire brigades are (in decreasing order of importance) rescuing people, protecting property and the environment, limiting damage and consequences. There are approximately 85,000 emergency missions a year in Finland, of which fires account for 18%. According to the Ministry of the Interior, Finnish fire brigades extinguish around 12,000 fires every year. Voluntary fire brigades have a significant role in the fire rescue service and cover a large part of Finland's area. In large fires (particularly forest fires) the rescue services also use civilians and members of the Finnish Defence Forces. Responsibilities Finland has 22 rescue services regions. These regions operate under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior. Each region is responsible for the rescue service within the area. The Rescue departments are responsible of the rescue services within a rescue services region and function as the regional rescue authorities. The Rescue Departments in Finland have several responsibilities. They include, but are not limited to: Accident prevention, damage mitigation and fire inspections, safety education and advice Rescue operations Civil defence Rescue departments rarely provide only fire fighting services, but also perform several other types of rescue operations and often also ambulance/emergency medical services for the municipalities. The rescues service regions have different risk areas. The risk areas are categorised by time constraints set to the rescue service. For example, in risk area 2, the rescue unit must arrive at the accident site within ten minutes of the emergency call. Professional fire fighting Finland's professional fire and rescue service is provided by approximately 5,000 full-time employees. The professional fire fighters are trained at either the Emergency Services College or City of Helsinki rescue school which trains fire fighters in Helsinki. Emergency Services College The professional fire fighters in Finland are trained by the Emergency Services College which operates under the Ministry of the Interior. Dating back to the 1930s, its main tasks are to plan and provide fire and rescue training, civil defence training and other emergency operation training. It started as the "Fire Officers' School" in Helsinki and has since changed