Firefighters do a dangerous job - which is changing. It hasn't made him any quieter, quite the opposite. In NRW, more and more assignments have been added over the years.
Wuppertal (dpa / lnw) - According to the fire brigade association and trade union, fire brigades in North Rhine-Westphalia are struggling with an increasing burden, mainly due to an increase in rescue service operations. A spokesman for the Association of Fire Brigades in North Rhine-Westphalia said there was a steady increase in this area.
In addition, in recent years, more and more climate-related operations have had to be deployed. "This means a change in deployment strategies, adjustment of equipment, increased training needs, increase in area operations and at the same time increase in the duration of such operations," it said.
According to the hazard prevention reports of the Ministry of the Interior for the past few years, there were a total of 1.63 million fire service deployments in NRW in 2012. In 2020 it was already 1.86 million. Among them were a large number of rescue service operations. In the same period, it rose from 1.36 million to 1.46 million per year. The previous maximum was reached in 2018: In that year, the emergency services deployed a total of 1.93 million times, including 1.51 million rescue service calls. The overall statistics for 2021 are not yet available. The fire brigades ensure the rescue service in large parts of NRW.
According to Guido Schiller from the North Rhine-Westphalia regional group of the German fire brigade union, the burden on the emergency services has increased by up to 30 percent in some cases in recent months. "Since Corona, the rescue service personnel have been more than at their limit." The trade unionist suspected that the increase in the mentality among citizens to call 112 for every "trifle" was partly due to this. Stress and isolation from Corona also contribute to people calling the emergency number more often. Frank Bremser from the German Fire Brigade Association recently said: "We're also a bit of a suggestion box. If people don't know how to deal with an emergency, they dial 112." But it's okay to call too many times rather than too few, for example if you suspect a stroke.
According to the NRW Fire Brigade Association, the shortage of skilled workers is also noticeable in the professional fire brigade. Firefighters would be needed in all careers, as well as paramedics. The numbers in the volunteer fire brigade, on the other hand, are stable. According to the Ministry of the Interior, there were 87,304 emergency services there in 2016, and by 2020 the number had risen to 90,325.
