2023-10-19 02:00:00
Johanna Milz-Lechner has been coming and going here for years, no decades. A comrade greets them friendly. Here, this is the Lengfelden fire station. Johanna’s grandfather was a co-founder of this fire brigade, which belongs to the Bergheim local fire department. She first came into contact with the fire department through her father. In the 1980s, the neighboring fire station urgently needed a person to man the radio room. The technology-savvy young woman was studying for an amateur radio exam at the time. The now 70-year-old remembers: “When my father asked me whether I would also find fire service radio exciting, I was very interested.”
As a woman among men
She joined in 1987. This meant that for a long time she was the only woman on the fire engine. At that time there were very few women serving in the volunteer fire department in the entire state. She has only had positive experiences with her direct colleagues in Lengfelden. “I’ve only received appreciation here.” Even if the fire brigade was not initially aimed at a woman as a member. There was no women’s locker room. The solution: the disabled toilet.
Even though it was unusual, it didn’t take courage to break into such a male domain, says Johanna. But an oily skin. “So that everything that is said flows from you.” Because at the section level, which includes the fire departments in northern Flachgau, a lot has actually been said regarding them. “Someone once said whether any idiot might join the fire department. It wasn’t that easy.”
A mission that will be remembered
Johanna did not allow herself to be driven away and stayed. In addition to her radio training, she underwent peer training. A system for which that of the Red Cross served as a model and is intended to help colleagues following stressful missions. As a peer, Johanna supported her fellow firefighters with psychological challenges while on duty. She particularly remembers one mission. “That was in Nußdorf a few years ago. The fire chief there called me and asked for help. A tragic mission put a heavy burden on young members.” In May 2012, three young women plunged their car into the Oichten River. They were trapped under water in the accident, two women died, one of whom died at the scene of the accident. “The firefighters who got there tried with everything they had to turn the car around. With little success. The young comrades were so affected. You then look for the fault in yourself. They asked themselves: We were too slow?” Johanna conducted individual and group discussions with them. “I explained to them: Guys, it mightn’t work out.” In such situations you need a lot of empathy.
At the age of 70, she broke the “sound barrier” in the volunteer fire department. Then active service must be acknowledged for all members. On the one hand, because it would be too dangerous, and on the other hand, because you would no longer be insured during operations. Johanna still likes to do the sparking. She alternates with colleagues and, among other things, takes on the siren rehearsal on weekends. For them, the fire service is a significant part of their lives. This allowed her to get to know places that she would never have been able to go otherwise. She visited Brazil and New York with her comrades. “The fire department is the best thing that might have happened to me,” she says. It’s nice that there are more comrades there in the meantime. “The fire department is a big whole with many sub-areas. Not everyone has to be a muscle man. Whether man or woman, whether small, petite, or tall and strong: If you’re interested, you’ll find a place here where you can do something can afford.”
Group photos from the past years hang on the wall in the staircase of the Lengfelden fire station. In the middle of the many men in brown uniforms, beautifully symmetrically positioned, stands the 1992 version of Johanna. And smiles proudly.
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