Fire protection
Source: BUS Rheinland-PfalzThe responsible bodies are
- the municipalities for fire protection and general assistance,
- the rural districts for supra-local fire protection and supra-local general assistance,
- the districts and independent cities for civil protection and
- the federal state for the central tasks of fire protection, general assistance and disaster control as well as for the tasks of preventive hazard protection. In order to fulfill its central tasks, the state has set up a "Fire and Disaster Protection" department at the Supervisory and Service Directorate in Trier and maintains the Fire and Disaster Protection School in Koblenz for training purposes.
The fire departments are to be financed by the responsible authority. They receive financial assistance from the state - from funds from the fire protection tax and the investment fund - for the procurement of firefighting equipment, personal protective equipment and for the construction or renovation of fire stations.
Professional fire department: In cities with more than 90,000 inhabitants - Kaiserslautern, Koblenz, Ludwigshafen, Mainz and Trier - the fire department must comprise units of full-time firefighters (professional fire department). Other municipalities can set up a professional fire department.
Volunteer fire department: In municipalities without a professional fire department, a volunteer fire department must be set up. If there are not enough volunteers available for this, the necessary people must be called up for voluntary fire department ("compulsory fire department"). Larger cities that are not (yet) obliged to have a professional fire department due to their population are in many cases forming volunteer fire departments with full-time firefighters, e.g. Neuwied, Worms, Speyer and Pirmasens.
Plant fire department: For companies with increased fire or explosion hazards or other special dangers, the supervisory and service directorate can require the establishment of a plant fire department (examples: BASF, Boehringer, Schott-Glas plant fire departments) with full-time and/or part-time members.
The training and further training of the Rhineland-Palatinate fire departments is carried out as a network system between the individual responsible bodies, starting with the site training and district training through to the central training at the fire department and disaster control school in Koblenz
In future, all non-police requests for assistance will be received and coordinated by eight integrated control centers. The integrated control centers will thus form a uniform reporting head.
Rhineland-Palatinate's emergency response in fire protection and disaster control has a multi-level structure. Accordingly, the municipalities are responsible for local fire protection and local general assistance [see Section 2 (1) No. 1 of the State Act on Fire Protection, General Assistance and Disaster Control (LBKG)]. With regard to the Rhine-Lahn district, this refers to the association municipalities and the large district town of Lahnstein. To fulfill their tasks, the association municipalities and the large district town of Lahnstein use the local fire department units as a municipal institution.
Supra-local fire protection and supra-local general assistance are the responsibility of the district (§ 2 Para. 1 No. 2 LBKG). The tasks of supra-local fire protection include those that are not initiated in every municipality but in the entire district or are required in addition to the municipal tasks.
District fire brigade inspector
In accordance with Section 5 LBKG, every district must appoint a district fire brigade inspector (KFI). The KFI acts as a technical advisor and also as an executive body of the district administrator in all fire department matters of the district. Tasks include
- Advising the district administrator on all matters relating to fire protection, general assistance and disaster control
- Participating in the planning and procurement of equipment in consultation with the heads of the fire brigades
- Managing operations as the district administrator's representative
- Advising the municipalities on all matters relating to fire protection
Equipment
In order to fulfill the tasks of supra-local fire protection, the Rhine-Lahn district procured a tank fire-fighting vehicle (TLF 24/50), a hose vehicle (SW 2000) and a rescue vehicle. These are stationed in the district so that large areas can be reached quickly and the local fire department units can be supported quickly.
District training
Another important task in supra-local fire protection is the training and further education of firefighters. Every year, firefighters in the Rhine-Lahn district are trained in the central district training in Bad Ems, as well as in the decentralized district training, which is carried out in the respective municipalities and the large district town of Lahnstein. The appointed district instructors are active in the areas of machine operator, squad leader and digital radio training, among others.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the Rhine-Lahn district also acts as a coordinator and supporter for the youth fire department and the district fire brigade association. Information can be found on the homepage of the Rhein-Lahn district fire brigade association ( http://www.kfv-rhein-lahn.de ).
State specialist units
The state of Rhineland-Palatinate sets up state specialist units for special emergency situations. In the Rhine-Lahn district, there is a diving unit and a rescue dog unit in Lahnstein, which can also be deployed nationwide.