Pirmasens fire department

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Pirmasens fire department
Coat of arms of Pirmasens Office of the city of Pirmasens
Pirmasens fire station.jpg
Volunteer firefighter
Founding year: 1869
Departments: 1
Active members: 104
Vehicles: 22nd
Youth fire brigade
Founding year: 1991
Groups: 1
Members: 51
www.pirmasens.de/dante-cms/21258/Brand__und_Katastrophenschutz.html

The Pirmasens fire brigade is the municipal fire protection authority of the south-west Palatinate city ​​of Pirmasens . It consists of volunteer firefighters and professional firefighters , but is classified as a volunteer fire brigade according to Rhineland-Palatinate law - a professional fire brigade would have to keep at least one train constantly manned.

The official name for this fire department is "Office of Fire and Emergency Situations of the city of Pirmasens," its members are organized in the city Fire Brigade Association Pirmasens, who in turn replaced the county firefighters association Südwestpfalz and Landesfeuerwehrverband Rheinland-Pfalz the German Fire Service Association is a member. The city ​​of Pirmasens is responsible for the fire brigade .

history

Early fire extinguishing system (until 1850)

Long before Pirmasens received city ​​rights in 1763 , the fire extinguishing system there was regulated. This was necessary because the architecture of the village consisted mainly of thatched houses, barns and stables, which caused a high risk of fire. The narrow and angled streets customary at the time made things even more difficult, as they particularly encouraged the fire to spread and at the same time made it difficult to extinguish the fire. These early fire extinguishing regulations can no longer be precisely dated. In particular, they regulated which citizens should be called in to fight fires with leather buckets and sailcloths.

The fire extinguishing system in the garrison town experienced its first major reform with the procurement of two manual pressure syringes in 1774, which had to be filled with water by hand. In addition, other materials - including ladders and tear hooks - were stationed in churches, in the barracks and in the town hall . The bells of today's St. John's and Luther's Churches , which were rung by the storm, served as an alarm device . All citizens had to show up with the devices assigned to them and start fighting the fire under the command of the mayor of the city. This is mostly achieved by covering or tearing down the burning house, the woodwork of which was extinguished with the aid of the hand pressure spray. To ensure that the hand pressure syringes had enough water, the citizens formed buckets to nearby wells.

Pirmasens, which is not far from the French border, experienced a break in its fire-fighting system with the coalition wars. Numerous skirmishes in the region (the battle of Pirmasens became particularly well known ) and a long occupation of the city resulted in the destruction of the fire extinguishing systems. The two manual pressure syringes were carried off to Landau to the west when the French soldiers withdrew . Later they could be brought back by the citizens of Pirmasens.

Foundation of the fire brigade (1850–1878)

In the middle of the 19th century, the city's fire fighting system was reformed again and the development towards a modern fire brigade was initiated. The beginning of this reform was a new fire extinguishing ordinance issued in 1850, which assigned the citizens appointed to the fire service their respective tasks. In 1861, a motorized fire brigade syringe from the Heidelberg manufacturer Metz was put into service, with which the manual pressure syringes finally lost their raison d'etre.

The new fire extinguishing regulations already lost their validity after 18 years when a new police criminal code came into force. A year later, in 1869, young men from the middle class suggested the fundamental redesign of the fire extinguishing system, following the example of other Palatinate cities, especially Kaiserslautern . As a result, a committee was convened to take over the organization of this fire brigade. This stipulated that applicants had already completed their military service and had to live in Pirmasens. Out of 154 applicants, 119 recognized it as fit and suitable. In the period that followed, the fire brigade's equipment was procured from common resources, while every firefighter was responsible for his uniform. The Pirmasens fire brigade actually began with a general assembly in 1869, at which it constituted itself as the "Voluntary Fire Brigade Corps Pirmasens" and elected its commander. Around two months later, in November of the same year, a second syringe from Metz, as well as an equipment trolley and various other pieces of equipment were ordered.

From the minutes of this time an overly strict observance of the discipline can be seen. For example, severe penalties were imposed for failures in exercises or missions and for insulting superiors. As a result, only a few members appeared at a general assembly in 1877, who unanimously decided to dissolve the fire brigade. Until a new fire brigade was organized, the remaining emergency services continued to guarantee that the fire protection task would be carried out. In 1878 the city council established a compulsory fire brigade in which every citizen of Pirmasens between the ages of 26 and 40 had to serve.

Mechanization of the fire brigade (1880–1933)

In the following years, Pirmasens grew significantly, especially as an industrial location, which required a modernization of the fire extinguishing system. Therefore, among other things, the alarm system was expanded. In the 80s of the 19th century, the Pirmasens water pipeline system was inaugurated, in which hydrants were built, which made the use of water buckets and watercars superfluous - instead hose and hydrant carts were used, which were distributed over the entire city area. As a result, the number of compulsory fire brigades was reduced.

At the turn of the century, however, the economic boom in the Pirmasens industry led to numerous major fires, which required increasingly modern fire fighting technology. From 1905 to 1910 new fire extinguishing regulations were drawn up for Pirmasens, which provided for exemptions from the fire service obligation. Above all, the fire brigade was divided into two departments, one of which consisted of 25 men and was primarily used to fight smaller fires, the so-called "alarm department". The other department was called “General Wehr” and was only to be used in major fires. A reform of the alarm system emerged, which consisted of alarm bells in the houses of the emergency services and a system of fire alarms distributed throughout the city and which remained in operation until the outbreak of the First World War.

After the war, which severely thinned the ranks of all German fire departments, the era of the first motorized fire engines began, which enabled and required a new reorganization of the fire department. In 1923 and 1924, for example, motorized syringes and a 32 m long turntable ladder were put into service, which had to be driven by so-called machinists. These vehicles already had blue lights and bells as alarm devices.

The fire brigade in the Third Reich (1933–1945)

With the seizure of power of Hitler in 1933 began the gradual disintegration of societies and associations, which were the first fire departments not affected. When the Fire Extinguishing Act was passed in 1935, however, the fire brigade and police increasingly merged until they became the fire extinguishing police in 1937 , the commander of which was given the title of "district fire brigade leader". After Pirmasens had been evacuated, 10 firefighters were barracked in the rifle hall and 25 firefighters at the parade ground to ensure fire protection . Their vehicle fleet, which initially consisted of old vehicles from the Weimar Republic , was supplemented and replaced by modern large-scale fire engines and fire fighting vehicles , which still characterize the fire service throughout Germany today. Since Pirmasens was initially largely spared from the war, the fire brigade was initially deployed primarily to provide local extinguishing assistance in Kaiserslautern, Ludwigshafen, Frankenthal and Saarbrücken. On August 9, 1944, January 5 and March 15, 1945, however, Pirmasens was bombed out, with the equipment and accommodations of the fire brigade, with the exception of a fire fighting vehicle, destroyed, unless they were withdrawn beforehand.

New beginning (1945–1954)

When the US Army forces invaded Pirmasens after the war, the city looked more like a heap of rubble. Most of the population had been evacuated, the remainder were busy cleaning up. At that time, two fire chiefs were given the task of maintaining the fire protection of the city with the remaining comrades. A preserved equipment hall in Ottostraße now served the fire brigade as a base, where they could accommodate their emergency fire engine, a car with a standpipe and some hose material. As early as March 1946, eight men on duty were set up in the Steigerturm. During the night, the firefighters could be alerted using the air raid sirens.

A proper fire brigade was rebuilt in 1948. A large fire engine was ordered at the end of this year, after which the fleet was gradually expanded. At the beginning of the 1950s, the fire brigade was able to move to a new station in Lemberger Strasse, which officially began operations in 1954.

The way to the modern fire service (since 1969)

From 1954 to 1969 there were no major changes in the fire service, after which the face of today's fire service began to develop. With the administrative reform, the urban area of ​​Pirmasens grew to 61 km². The volunteer fire brigades of the newly added districts were initially retained as equivalent fire brigades, but have since been integrated into the overall brigade. In 1971 the red paintwork of the emergency vehicles was replaced by a modern red and white. In the 1980s, the black combat uniform was replaced by the combination of an orange jacket and blue dungarees. In 1982 the Pirmasens City Fire Brigade Association was founded. In 1985, the 130 emergency services were divided into what are now the three departments. In 1990 the fire brigade had its first female member in active service, and the youth fire brigade was founded a year later .

On March 2, 2000, the fire brigade was able to move to its current fire station in Gasstrasse, as the old building no longer met the requirements. Today the Pirmasens fire brigade has around 100 active emergency services. In 2008, the fire brigade's problems with young talent became obvious.

units

Alarm department

The volunteers in Pirmasens are divided into three platoons that are alerted alternately. Then there are the professional firefighters who keep the fire station manned around the clock in alternating shifts. These are responsible in particular for the maintenance of equipment and vehicles, preventive hazard defense and the training and further training of the volunteer fire brigade. Since 1982, fire and disaster protection have been combined in one office, which consists of administrative officers and professional fire fighters.

Hazardous goods train

Since 1986 Pirmasens has had a hazardous goods train that is designed for use in NBC defense. He is responsible for taking on specialist supplementary measures in the event of a dangerous goods accident, such as hazard prevention, safety measures and decontamination, while the other fire fighters are only allowed to undertake initial measures that cannot be postponed, such as rescuing people and closing off the scene of the accident.

Height rescue

With the height rescue group founded in 2000 , the Pirmasens fire brigade was one of the first in Rhineland-Palatinate to have such a facility. This group currently comprises ten emergency services who have completed special training for this purpose.

Youth fire brigade

51 boys and girls between the ages of ten and 16 are currently active in the youth fire brigade, looked after by 18 helpers from the emergency department and three helpers from the city fire department.

Fire station

The fire station houses a respiratory protection , radio and vehicle workshop and a hose workshop as well as hose storage, a warehouse and a vehicle hall with 24 parking spaces, a dispatcher workstation, changing rooms, clothes closet and laundry room as well as a kitchen, a lounge and a fitness room.

vehicles

The fleet of the Pirmasens fire brigade currently consists of:

As part of the Pirmasens fire brigade's swap body concept, it currently has three roll-off containers :

  • 1 roll-off container trough
  • 1 roll-off container hose
  • 1 roll-off container for respiratory protection / radiation protection (AB-A / S)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f feuerwehr-pirmasens.de: History of the fire Pirmasens . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; Retrieved November 24, 2013 .
  2. ↑ pirmasenser-zeitung.de: The fire brigade needs fresh blood. Offspring missing - “Help us help” campaign started. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012 ; Retrieved November 24, 2013 .
  3. ↑ feuerwehr-pirmasens.de: Hazardous material train . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 24, 2013 .
  4. ↑ feuerwehr-pirmasens.de: Rescue from heights . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 24, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Pirmasens fire brigade celebrates its 150th anniversary. City of Pirmasens: Press release of September 20, 2019, accessed on January 15, 2020 .