Legal powers of the fire service in security planning

The fire service has statutory tasks in preventive and defensive fire protection and in certain emergency situations. Its involvement in security planning, however, does not create a general authority to decide on all security measures of an event.

Legal basis

The legal basis arises in particular from the fire service and fire protection acts of the German states, building law and the respective assembly venue ordinances.

At events, the fire service can assess from a professional standpoint, among other things, fire service access routes, escape and rescue routes, extinguishing water supply, fire protection equipment and whether a fire safety watch is required.

Three levels must be distinguished

• Statutory powers: State legislation can assign the fire service specific tasks, participation rights and powers of intervention. For certain assembly venues, a legally regulated coordination of the security concept is also provided for.
• Professional guidelines: Fire services and fire service associations publish information sheets, assessment criteria and professional recommendations. These can contain important benchmarks for planning, but are not legally binding merely because they are published.
• Official orders: The competent authority can set binding requirements on a statutory basis and take professional opinions of the fire service into account. The fire service or its incident command can also hold its own powers to issue orders where the corresponding statutory conditions are met.

Especially in public space

This distinction is particularly relevant for temporary events in public space. There, extensive fire service requirements are in part applied without a directly applicable statutory detail provision existing for each individual measure.

What does not follow from this

Professional responsibility for fire protection also does not automatically create responsibility for all crowd management, digital security management systems or regular visitor communication.

Conclusion

Fire service requirements can be essential for event security. Their legal bindingness, however, arises from the relevant laws, lawful official decisions or other binding legal bases – not from the professional authority of the fire service alone.

More on this: Binding requirements and professional assessment in event security.

Note: research status 8 November 2026. General orientation; the statements have not been checked against the original regulations and do not include an overview by state. Not legal advice: the respective state law and the conditions in the individual case are decisive; in case of doubt, the competent authorities and specialists decide. No function, response time or certification of MOVETOS OPS is promised.