On 4 May 2024 (St. Florian's Day 2024), this year's comradeship evening of the volunteer fire brigade of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin took place in the canteen of the "Hennickendorf Chamber of Crafts". As the "hostess", the mayor, Mrs Löser, opened the evening with words of welcome to all comrades and guests from local politics, administration and the district fire brigade association MOL e.V. Ms Löser expressed her sincere thanks to all the firefighters for their hard work and commitment in 2023.
Afterwards, the community fire brigade leader, Björn Hanneck, asked all those present to rise from their seats for a traditional minute of silence in memory of Horst Richter and Klaus-Dieter Ullrich, who passed away in 2023.
The municipal fire brigade commander also welcomed all the comrades, Mrs Löser and the guests. Björn Hanneck has been the municipal fire brigade commander of the volunteer fire brigade in the municipality of Rüdersdorf bei Berlin for almost four years and began his speech with a brief summary of this time. What have the volunteer fire brigade, the fire service provider (the municipality of Rüdersdorf bei Berlin) and local politicians been able to achieve together and what important issues have already been addressed? In 2023, the last of 5 garages was erected at the Hennickendorf local fire brigade. Before that, 3 garages had already been installed at the Rüdersdorf local fire brigade and one garage at the Herzfelde local fire brigade. Even though these 5 garages considerably increase the space available in the three local fire brigades, Björn Hanneck pointed out that all three locations now have too little space. A major issue in this regard is the so-called "black-white separation". This means that the short-term goal must be to provide each member of the fire brigade with a double locker so that "private clothing" and "operational clothing" can be stored separately.
In 2020, a command vehicle (KdoW) was put into service for the fire brigade management. In mid-2021, a full-time equipment attendant was hired for our volunteer fire service. The full-time equipment attendant relieves the volunteers of a great deal of work in the back office and is available to the volunteer fire brigade during their working hours as an operational and management staff member.
The municipality will be investing over 100,000 euros in new digital radio technology in the near future. Among other things, the handheld radios will be replaced and the inventory expanded. In the middle of this year, the respiratory protection equipment will be converted to "overpressure technology", with the responsible body investing over 66,000 euros.
The procurement of the "thick" protective clothing for the interior attack was completed last year; this year, the first sets of light protective clothing for fighting vegetation fires will be procured. The municipality will be charged approx. 800.00 euros per set of this light protective clothing. This year also saw the start of the changeover to new/light protective helmets.
Last year, a module was handed over to the volunteer fire brigade for "emergency site hygiene". Among other things, this module has various sets of changing clothes and technical equipment for the decontamination of emergency personnel at the scene of an incident. But this is just the beginning. In connection with compliance with occupational health and safety, further measures must be taken in future to prevent contamination and its spread.
For civil defence and disaster control, the municipality procured 2 emergency power generators for the fire brigade. The local fire brigade in Rüdersdorf will then have a stationary NEA and the local fire brigades in Herzfelde and Hennickendorf will have a mobile NEA in order to be able to continue to supply the equipment centres with electricity in the event of large-scale power failures. This means that the local fire brigades remain operational and a command centre can be set up in the event of an emergency and the population has contact points.
Ensuring daytime operational readiness is also a major challenge for volunteer fire brigades. Over a year ago, a working group at district level, in which the fire chief is also involved, tackled this issue and to date has developed a draft concept, which is now to be presented to the district council and checked for financial feasibility.
"At this point, I would like to give you, dear "Rüdersdorfer", the very important information that fire protection and technical assistance are ensured and covered by a VOLUNTARY FIRE SERVICE. Only if we or your fire brigade have enough active firefighters can we guarantee fire safety in our community. You can obtain information on this very important topic via the "website" of the municipality of Rüdersdorf bei Berlin and via the "social network" of the individual local fire brigades.
The fire chief did not want to leave unmentioned the 3 new fire engines that have already been ordered. An emergency fire fighting vehicle (HLF 20) and a large tank fire fighting vehicle (G-TLF) with a 9000-litre extinguishing water tank were ordered for the Herzfelde local fire brigade in 2023. At the beginning of this year, a new aerial rescue vehicle (telescopic mast) was ordered for the Rüdersdorf local fire brigade. The municipality is investing over € 2.4 million in these three replacements for "old" fire service vehicles. This very high investment also means a great deal to the comrades and shows that maintaining/equipping an efficient fire brigade is very important to the responsible body, the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin, and our local politicians. At the same time, these vehicles serve the safety of our citizens.
In 2023, the volunteer fire brigade of the municipality of Rüdersdorf bei Berlin was alerted a total of 363 times. The Hennickendorf local fire brigade was alerted 98 times, the Herzfelde local fire brigade 72 times and the Rüdersdorf local fire brigade 193 times. This year, the fire brigade was alerted a total of 110 times up to 4 May 2024. The fire brigade commander mentioned the fire at the mill in the Hennickendorf district in December 2023 and the very serious road accident on the B1 at the beginning of March 2024 with several serious injuries and two people involved who unfortunately did not survive the accident as particularly challenging operations.
A total of 181 comrades are active in the volunteer fire brigade of the municipality of Rüdersdorf near Berlin. 39 comrades are enjoying their well-earned "retirement" in the age and honour division, 39 children and young people are members of the youth fire brigade and 103 comrades are active in the operational division.
At the end of his speech, Björn Hanneck thanked Mrs Löser, the administration, local politicians and "his" local fire brigade leaders and local fire brigades for the very good and constructive cooperation.
"I hope that all emergency services personnel always return to their families safe and sound from every deployment."
"Stay and stay healthy"
Björn Hanneck
Fire chief
Volunteer fire brigade
Rüdersdorf near Berlin
The following comrades were then promoted and honoured:
promoted:
Andy Roennebeck as firefighter
Jason Storbeck as firefighter
Julian Herrig as senior firefighter
Enrico Gesche-Schulz as chief firefighter
Tobias Varuzza as master firefighter
Michele Bode as master firefighter
Florian Kunze as master firefighter
Mario Krippner as senior firefighter
Steven Bauer as senior firefighter
Peter Esche as Chief Firefighter
Maik Lehnert as Chief Firefighter
Marek Sturm as Chief Firefighter
Gunnar Stinn as Chief Firefighter
Dominik Zipper as Chief Firefighter
Dennis Sahr as Fire Chief
Uwe Hinz as Fire Chief
Ralf Lehmann appointed Chief Fire Officer
honoured:
Peter Esche medal for 10 years of loyal service (copper)
Philipp Apitz Medal for 20 years of loyal service (bronze)
Marco Bauer Medal for 20 years of loyal service (bronze)
Danny Tollkühn Medal for 20 years of loyal service (bronze)
Max Sendel Medal for 20 years of loyal service (bronze)
Denny Schierack Medal for 20 years of loyal service (bronze)
Roland Bierwagen for 30 years of loyal service (silver)
Marek Sturm Medal for 30 years of loyal service (silver)
Holger Nachtigall for 40 years of loyal service (gold)
Helga Förster for 40 years of loyal service (gold)
Petra Korth for 40 years of loyal service (gold)
Robert Lenz medal for 60 years of loyal service (gold)
Dieter Matthes Medal for 70 years of loyal service (gold)
Once again, our warmest congratulations to all those promoted and honoured!!!