The fire brigade and rescue services are sometimes violently attacked during their operations. It doesn't always stop at insults.
Leipzig (dpa/sn) - The fire brigade and rescue services in Saxony keep getting into dicey situations. "Our colleagues from the rescue services are observing increasing aggression during operations," said Sebastian Späthe, spokesman for the Johanniter in Saxony. Most of the time it is verbal abuse. According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the number of cases actually recorded in which rescuers become victims of a crime has remained relatively constant for years.
Two rescue workers were injured in Plauen this year with the Johanniter. One man suffered a broken jaw during the operation, the other had his nose broken during another operation. It was always the same perpetrator - and he attacked the rescuers without warning, as Späthe said. In previous years, the accident workers had not recorded any cases of physical violence.
According to an overview by the Interior Ministry, between 2015 and 2021 more than 100 members of the fire and rescue services were victims of a crime. The numbers from the police crime statistics vary between 113 in 2015 and 136 in 2018. A member of the AfD state parliament had asked for the information in a small request.
Total figures for 2022 are not yet available. In response to another Minor Inquiry about cases in the first half of the year, the Home Office reported 32 crimes. Of these, 12 were physical attacks, 8 physical injuries, 5 coercion, 2 insults and threats each, one case each of dangerous and negligent physical injury and one act of resistance.
In addition to insults, threats and attacks on the emergency services, rescue vehicles are also the target of aggression - for example by throwing bottles. The state capital Dresden has counted a total of 52 such cases since 2015. These are very annoying because the vehicles then fail for hours or even days, the city administration said. Attacks on emergency services came mainly from three groups: those under the influence of alcohol, people under the influence of drugs and the mentally ill.
Fire brigades and rescue services try to train their employees for critical situations. The German Red Cross (DRK) has the TEK project, in which emotional skills are trained. This should strengthen mental health, according to DRK spokesman Kai Kranich. The Johanniter offer their colleagues de-escalation training. And the city of Dresden also said: "De-escalation training and conversation skills are an integral part of regular training and further education."
