Ensuring civil defence and emergency preparedness
The Singapore Civil Defence (SCDF) provides firefighting, rescue, emergency medical services and hazardous materials mitigation. It also formulates, implements and enforces regulations on fire safety and civil defence shelter matters.
Last updated 1 February 2026
What we do
The role of the SCDF is to provide:
Emergency Response -24-hour firefighting, rescue, mitigation of hazardous incidents and emergency medical services
Fire Safety and Public Protection - formulating and enforcing regulations on fire safety and civil defence shelter matters
Community Engagement - enhancing the resilience and emergency preparedness of the civil population, and promoting community first response
Legislation
Our laws on fire safety, civil defence and emergency preparedness include the following:
The Civil Defence Act provides for the raising, maintenance and discipline of a civil defence force and for the exercise of the functions and powers of the Force during national emergencies and day-to-day operations
The Fire Safety Act makes provisions for the fire safety of buildings and to give SCDF the necessary legislative levers to maintain regulatory oversight over relevant stakeholders and take enforcement action against infringements
The Civil Defence Shelter Act relates to the provision of civil defence shelters for use during a state of emergency and for matters connected to it
Initiatives
Civil Defence Shelter Programme
Building up our nation's civil defence preparedness, the programme protects the civilian population from weapon effects during a war emergency and is under the SCDF's umbrella of Total Defence.
MyResponder
The community plays a key role in SCDF’s Tiered Emergency Response Framework as our partner in delivering life-saving interventions to casualties. The MyResponder mobile app crowdsources lifesaving by alerting members of the public to nearby medical cases. These alerts will be further expanded to include fire cases.
Save-A-Life (SAL)
Launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, People's Association and Singapore Heart Foundation, the SAL initiative builds a network of community first responders who are trained in performing CPF and operating AEDs to respond to cardiac arrests in their immediate vicinity.
How you can do your part
If you are interested in civil defence, head to the SCDF website to find out how you can take precautions during peacetime and war time emergencies. You can also learn how to adopt fire safety measures and how to be a Community First Responder.