In Brazil, fire services are militarized like some fire departments of France. The "Corpos de bombeiros", or fire fighting corps, is an integral part of the military police. In Brazil military police perform regular police duties throughout the country. This means that in for example the State of São Paulo, people cannot just join the fire brigade. They are first of all policemen, performing the duties of a fire fighter. Each state has its own Military Firefighters Corps (in Portuguese: "Corpo de Bombeiros Militar"). Cities of southern Brazil, with traditional German communities, have had volunteer fire fighters since the nineteenth century.