2023-06-20 06:06:00
The two members of the volunteer fire brigade – a woman and a man – fought a fire in a motorcycle shop on Sunday.
On Monday morning there was still a smell of burning in the air. The sympathy in the town of 58,000 was enormous. Flowers and candles were placed – one of which read: “For all firefighters who have died”. Other messages were: “We admire your courage” and “We will always think of you”.
The ruins of the burned-out motorcycle shop were largely cordoned off on Monday. Only the facade of the old building was still standing. Excavators cleared away rubble, a fire investigator from the police secured traces to clarify the cause of the fire.
Eleven firefighters injured
The volunteer fire brigade was alerted at 11:18 a.m. on Sunday morning. A 30-meter-high cloud of black smoke hung over the motorcycle shop with the adjoining workshop – the highest alert! More than 200 emergency services rushed to extinguish the fire. Eleven of them were injured.
The fireman and woman have been missing since Sunday followingnoon. On Monday morning, the city finally said there was now the sad certainty that they were dead. “This tragic event shocks and stuns us all,” said Mayor Max Leitterstorf (CDU). The city will never forget them. NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) praised the “brave firefighters” with the words: “Your selfless commitment deserves our greatest respect.”
Death very rare
According to the fire protection expert Frank Hachemer, the deaths of firefighters in Germany are very rare. “Nationwide, 1.3 million people are active in the volunteer fire brigade, and fortunately most of them remain unharmed,” said the Vice President of the German Fire Brigade Association of the German Press Agency. The death of the two firefighters in Sankt Augustin was terrible, “but the voluntary fire brigade system is not called into question by such an incident”.
Under no circumstances should one be subject to the fallacy that the volunteer firefighters are not professionally trained – the opposite is the case. The voluntary fire brigade system, which is almost unique in the world, offers the advantage that the fire brigade can be on the road everywhere. “There are other countries where that’s not the case, and fire protection is often much worse there because there are far fewer firefighters and they often can’t be on the spot as quickly.”
The members of the volunteer fire brigade are also excellently trained. In the preparation and in action everything is done to ensure that the worst case does not occur. “But as we just had to experience in a bad way in Sankt Augustin, one hundred percent security can never be achieved,” said Hachemer. The two firefighters who died were apparently among the first to enter the burning building. “Not everyone can and does that, it’s always a specially qualified squad.” For example, the experienced members of these units might wear respirators. “It’s practiced closely, and those who do it are regularly and intensively medically examined, even every year from the age of 50.”
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