Fire Brigades in Austria

And now to the Organisation about the Fire Brigades in Austria:

The Austrian fire-fighting scenario is to a great part determined by voluntary fire brigades in almost all towns and even the smallest villages, or by (nearly exclusively voluntary) works fire brigades that consist of company-own personnel that helps protect their operation plants and thus their working places.

Only the big provincial capitals Vienna, Graz, Linz, Innsbruck, Salzburg and Klagenfurt have their own professional fire brigade that are rich in tradition and very well equipped.

(Folie)

Organisation:

Distribution form the fire brigades

4.549 voluntary fire brigades

324 works fire brigades

6 professional fire brigades

319.213 fire fighters with

21.576 young fire fighters

Austria have

○ ÖBFV (Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Federation)

○ 9 National fire brigade unions

○ .. District fire brigade unions

○ Sector fire brigade unions

○.Sub-Sector fire brigade unions

○.fire brigades

The fire brigade's sphere of activities:

Fire fighting

Preventive fire protection

(technical) services after accidents and for other emergencies, respectively for people or animals

Services in (other) cases of damage or disasters (natural catastrophes - flood 2002, technical accidents, ecocatastrophes etc.)

Services in case of accidents involving hazardous materials

(other) Services for civil defense

The Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Federation (ÖBFV)

With its headquarters in Vienna the ÖBFV (the Austrian federal fire brigade federation) is the holding company of the provincial fire brigade associations and the town's professional fire brigades. Its main activities include the co-ordination of the all-Austrian fire fighting activities with respect to organisation, training, techniques etc.

Competitions (Folie "Wettkampfgruppe")

On the occasion of the annual competitions held in the individual states thousands of groups of fire fighters are awarded the fire fighting badge of performance in bronze or silver. These competitions are very popular and are implemented on state-, district- and section levels. On state level competitions are held every five years.

The competitions-group at the achievement competitions be made of 9 Fire brigade members and each member have a other task

The group consists of:

• Group commander                                 - Water group commander
• Pump operator     - Water group man
• Reporter               - Hose group commander
• Attack group commander                      - Hose group man
• Attack group man

The task:

At fist the competitions croup stand in two rows

The time start with the commando form the group commander "first an second pipe for

The water troop and hose troop couple the A-Hose together and should do that as quickly as possible and without mistakes.

While the water troop and hose troop coupled with (in) the area of the pump, the attack troop lays the B-Hose out; the first B-Hose is coupled on the pump.

When the 4 A-Hoses are coupled together, the hose line will secured with a cord (this is made by the water group commander) and than the pump operator and the water group man couple the suction line to the pump.

The attack troop couple the distributor on the last B-hose line and 2 C-delivery hoses and the nozzle are coupled on the distributor.

When the water troop and the hose troop are finished with the suction line, the water troop couples also 2 C-delivery hose on the second distributor-exit and a nozzle on the end form the last C-hose.

The hose group commander gives the pump operator a sign for "Water go" and the pump operator confirms the sign.

The hose group commander opens the both C-Exit at the distributor. When the hose group commander is above of the hose line, the time is stopped.

The jury leader writes the attack time (=Angriffszeit) and the penalty points on a prefabricated paper and the group commander confirms this with a signature.

Individual competitions include the fire fighting badge of performance in gold, radio competitions and actions of the fire department in case of water accidents. The regulations of the international fire fighting competitions are largely based on the Austrian competition regulations.

Good junior staff!

Austrian fire brigades have an excellent reputation all over Austria. Since nearly five years young people between the age of 12 and 16 have been trained so that presently as many as 16.000 young fire fighters are included in the Austrian junior fire brigade.