lol… did you know that I am a firefighter?
Fire fighting as in extinguishing threads i flame? 
No, I mean real fires 
I know how to handle stuff from a firetruck and how to put out burning kitchens and cars… but most of the times burning trashcans… sometimes car accidents, and damages from storms… and one time we rescued a kitten.
Quite the career change. Do you guys just draw jobs out of a hat every five years over there or something?
Also strange question, can you euros just have fires in your backyard when ever you want?
For the first time in my life i can say the word president without distaste in my mouth.
Well it was never my job, and I am still a firefighter, I am just on the leave for the time I live here in Prague.
In Germany Garden Fire is local right, there are now laws against it, it is local aministrative order of the city. So it highly depends. Firefighting is also local stuff. There are no national or federal firefighters.
And the concept of firefighting is different in the US and Germany (probably europe)
Who employes and pays them then?
How so?
Firefighters are paid by the local community or the city. Federal law tells them what they have to do as minimum requirements, and it tells firefighters what they can do and what they can´t do.
I think the only national law that appeals to firefighters is the “Straßenverkehrsordnung”, (StVO - Order how to behave on Streets), which is not even a law but an administrative order. §35 (simplyfied): if it is an emergency, this order is not for you anymore, drive however you want and §38 if it is an emergency and if you use the siren and blue light, other road users have to make way.
Then federal law comes into place and defines what an emergency is and what the local communities have to do and how to react. For my state (NRW) this is are the laws BHKG, FSHG and RettG. Then the federal executive does nothing, They are not existant. Because now it is the task of the local communities, cities and villages.
Yes, there is a special unit for disasters, but they are built by… exact, the local communities.
If there is a disaster, this units are given to federal order and they can put them into action.
It is very different, so different that I even don´t really understand how american firefighters are organized. It seems they have specialized units in case of an emergancy. For example, they have specialised roof ventilation units, this units don´t even exist here in germany, because we have a totally different concept how fires are put out.
The USA does have a Paramedic and first responder system, Paramedics don´t exist in germany, and I have never seen a First responder neither. Because the system with which we work is totally different.
We have “Rettungsdienst and Notarzt” system in the so called “rendezvous concept”.
It is difficult for me to explain in detail, because I know how the german system works, but I am just confused by the US system, because I have no idea what they are doing.
It is not that they do a wrong job, it obviously works, but I am not used to it.
I don’t think Fire fire fighters are a federalized force here either, they’re paid by the communities, and i know there is no federal fire fighting force, similar to the FBI which is a federal police force.
Did you ever get to axe through a door?
In Czechia we have professional firefighters and volunteer firefighters. Proffessional firefighters are standard full-equiped units run by the state, while volunteer firefighters are small local organizations of volunteers that are financialy supported by regions. It’s a historical tradition, basicaly every village has their own club of volunteer firefighters. It’s actually a sport here, they have regular practices once/twice a week, where they train running with a hose, aim with the water spraing etc, and then they participate in competitions between villages. It looks like this. It’s a fun way how to have more firefighters that might help especially on places that are further from big cities where proffesional firefighter are stationed. Volunteer firefighters also often organize cultural events, being one is also good excuse to get wasted regularily (for the region’s money ofc), they are part of traditional culture in villages.
These people are fucking nuts.
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We have a lot of volunteers here, mainly in small towns. But ive never seen competitions like that.
There are basically 5 types of firefigthers in germany.
“Berufsfeuerwehr” - Professional firefighters. they do this as a job for a living, paid by the community or city.
“Werksfeuerwehr” - They do this for a living too, but they are paid by an airport or a company who has to build up its own fire brigade for safety reasons, because otherwise they were not allowed to keep up their company (for example, an airport or a chemical factory would lose its lisense without a fire brigade)
“Freiwillige Feuerwehr” - Volunteer Firefigthers. They are not paid, but they are equiped and trained by the local community. Around 80% of all firefigthers are volunteer firefigthers, and I was this kind of firefighter too.
“Katastrophenschutz Feuerwehr” - Well, this are federal firefighters, but they are not really existant. If there is a disaster, the state will go to a local community and say: "You have the population of X, that means that you have to have Y% of Katastrophenschutz Feuerwehr people. Now give them to me!"
Then the community would say: “Okay, here, take this people from my volunteer firefigthers, they are Katastrophenschutz Feuerwehr now.” There are no real firefigthers of this kind in active service, but in fact there are federal firefighting cars and trucks. This equipment is paid by the state and given to the local communities.
They also use them as normal daily vehicles for whatever they want to do with them.
And then, there is this really special case (I have no idea if it was ever used in Germany):
“Pflichtfeuerwehr” - forced firefighters. If a village is so small, that they don´t need to have professional firefighters, and if they only have volunteer firefighters, but there is a dispute in the group. For example the local firefighting commander don´t likes the major and is able to convince all other firefighters to quit, then this community would not have firefighters anymore. This is not allowed.
In this case the community can force every citizen (with the exeption of Police, Firefighters or Soldiers) of its community between the age of 18 and 63 to become a member of the Pflichtfeuerwehr.
They most likely will come to people who know something about firefighting, so this will be the former volunteer firefighters who recently quitted their hobby.
Forced firefighters don´t have to be paid. In some states, forced firefighters don´t count as an own group, they are volunteer firefighters by definition. For example in Bavaria.
Which is higly ironic, because in fact they are the most anti-volunteer firefighters possible… but… Bavaria…
For me this would not be possible, because I am a firefighter in Düsseldorf and I live in Erkrath. This are two different communities. Düsseldorf can´t force me to be a firefighter because I am not a citizen of Düsseldorf and Erkrath can´t force me because I am already a firefighter in Düsseldorf, and it is not allowed to steal firefighters from other communities.
If there is a really big fire or desaster, and a community is not able to deal with it, because it is too big, there are two options.
Option one, they call for the federal level. The federal level will say: "Okay, this is some big shit, we will call it for what it is, a disaster. Now as we have a disaster, I will call for my Katastrophenschutz Feuerwehr: Communities, where are my federal firefighters? I need them now!"
Option two, they stay on the community level: “Okay fellow other communities, I am in big trouble now, can you lend me some of your firefighters please?” - “Sure, but you have to pay for it afterwards!”
I would love to say yes, but no… I also never saved a life, not even a cat. I put out some fires, trees have fallen on streets and cars, some cars had accidents, people died… the normal stuff…
Fun fact: Düsseldorf, the city where I am a firefighter, does have the best community (professional and volunteer) firefighters in Germany, because of the best training and equipment. Only airports do have better firefighters and equipment.
Even as a volunteer firefighter I was way better equipped than most professional firefighters in germany.
There were two reasons for that:
- Düsseldorf is one of the richest cities in Germany, they have money to spend it.
- There was a huge disaster at the Düsseldorf Airport in 1996, and 17 people died and 88 were injured because the firefighters were poor equiped and trained at this time. They didn´t want to repeat that.
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Oh yes, I have looked into the topic, in the last couple of years some forced fire brigades popped up.
http://www.shz.de/regionales/schleswig-holstein/panorama/die-unfreiwillige-feuerwehr-so-laeuft-es-in-burg-und-list-id13326336.html
List on Sylt, Burg in Dithmarschen and last year Friedrichstadt in Friesland. Forced firefighters were picked by random chance in this cases. This villages were not able to bring up their own fire brigades anymore and they had to force people to do this. All in all already more than 100 people. All of them are forced to be firefighters for at least 6 years.
I assume there will be more and more of it in the following years, because there is huge crisis in firefighting for the following reasons.
- less and less people are members of societies, people get more and more individual. People don´t go so often in soccer clubs anymore, or become a member in a pigeon breeding society. It is easier to become friends with people on the internet today, so every society get problems with new upcoming people.
- 20 years ago people often worked where they lived, this changed more and more in the last couple of years. If you are a volunteer firefighter in your hometown, but you work like an hour away from this place, many people lose their connection to their hometown, and it is often impossible for them to go to an emergency from the place where they work.
- even if everything fits, and people work where they live, the acceptance of employers is going down. The law says that they have to let firefighters go if there is an emergency. The reality is different today. If somebody left their workplace for an emergency, they risk to lose their jobs nowadays.
- Communities and cities are getting poorer and poorer, they sometimes can´t afford professional fire brigades anymore, so the responsibility lays more and more on the volunteer firefighters, which are less and less people, and especially during working hours they are often not able to come anymore.
- Germany don´t have consciption military service anymore. One way to serve was to become a volunteer firefighter for at least 5 years. Often the people stayed longer after this, as they made friends with other people in the firefighting group. This is not the case anymore.
For this reasons, I espect that in the next couple of years, there will be more and more forced fire brigades in germany, especially in rural areas. I didn´t know that the situation was this bad already, but it is…
Keep telling that yourself in case your mother gets fingered on her trip to Berlin Christmas market.[quote=“SirWarriant, post:3419, topic:27880, full:true”]
We have a lot of volunteers here, mainly in small towns. But ive never seen competitions like that.
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That’s because you have God who answers wishes of some and gives cancer to others.
There is no God here. People don’t get together at/around church in most places. In small municipalities, the volunteer firefighting units and their meetings and sport competitions are the main social activity that gets people together.
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What exactly do you want to show me?
The extent of volunteer firefighting force in the country.
Also the level of equipment each municipality gives to their volunteer firefighters is a way to show off during the meetings of the forces from various towns and villages (and there are many during the summer).
Which often leads to situation where volunteers who have it mostly as a weekend hobby have better equipment than professionals:
Anyways, there is nothing like a good piece of armor with a big hose on it!
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