Stefan Schiendorfer had a premonition. When he was elected district fire brigade commander of Gmunden in March 2014, he saw the biggest challenge in the coming years as the “increase in weather disasters”. Almost two and a half years later, in July 2016, the world ended. Hail, storms and heavy rain only took ten minutes in Bad Ischl. Trees were uprooted, roofs stripped and roads impassable within moments. And Schiendorfer said the sentence back then that he had to repeat many times in the following years: “We’ve never had anything like this before.”
Forest fires in the Echernwand in Hallstatt and on the Brunnkogel near Ebensee subsequently kept the 62-year-old busy, as did the veritable snow chaos in 2019 and increasingly intense storms throughout the Salzkammergut. Last year alone, the 49 fire departments in the district had to respond to almost 4,000 calls – once more a significant increase compared to the previous year. The reason, not surprisingly: severe weather events. In total, they contributed 418,000 volunteer hours.
Image: Hörmandinger
The “new guy” isn’t new
For Stefan Schiendorfer, the presentation of the operational figures was the last act in his role as district fire brigade commander. After ten years, he no longer stands for election and instead places the office in younger hands.
Last weekend, Schiendorfer spoke to around 400 colleagues in Bad Ischl, to great applause, and also regarding his personal balance. He began his fire service career in 1976 with the Pfandl Volunteer Fire Department (municipality of Bad Ischl), of which he was commander from 1998 to 2013. At the same time, he was also responsible for training in the district and was the main assessor in technical performance tests.
Now Thomas Dreiblmeier is taking over. He has long been no stranger to the district’s fire department scene. It was only in 2019 that the then 42-year-old was elected section fire brigade commander in Gmunden. The father of the family, who works as a construction technician for the municipality of Vöcklabruck, was previously commander of the volunteer fire department in Wiesen (Pinsdorf municipality) for ten years.
“I feel honored to have received the trust of the district’s fire departments and look forward to implementing my visions for the further development of our fire departments,” says Dreiblmeier. Jürgen Weißmann takes over his position as section fire brigade commander.
Dreiblmeier will also be concerned with the climate in the coming years. He was last in action last Sunday: “Suspected fire on Lake Offensee” was the mission report. Although it hadn’t burned, it was still too dry: the wind had kicked up huge clouds of dust in the forest.
Author
Gabriel Egger
Editor Upper Austria
Gabriel Egger
