Future of the fire brigade: challenges and success in Neuberg!

Future of the fire brigade: challenges and success in Neuberg!

On February 3, 2025, the annual general meeting of the Neuberg fire brigade took place in the community center. Community fire inspector Daniel Alt warmly welcomed the present forces, members of the honorary and age department as well as the supervisors of the children's fire brigade and guests. A special ceremony was devoted to the dead ceremony for the late comrade Jörg Lukowics. In his report, Alt highlighted the current developments of the fire brigade and the challenges with which it is confronted.

The number of emergency services has dropped in 2024, which is due to demographic change and a decreasing willingness to volunteer. In this regard, the community youth fire brigade Kevin Tuchen also highlighted the situation of the youth fire brigade, which ultimately recorded an increase of two members, remained stable during the membership of the children's fire brigade. Despite the challenges, the number of operations decreased from 61 to 55. These missions included door openings, wearing aids, two alarms because of "fire - human lives in danger", traffic accidents and local missions.

training and commitment

The fire brigade were involved in a total of over 5,622 hours for training, exercises and operations. The training takes place not only at the location itself, but also at the district level and at the state fire brigade school. The youth fire brigade took part in several events, including a tent camp from the district youth fire brigade in Bad Orb and a 24-hour exercise with Erlensee. In addition, the children's fire brigade offered numerous activities for children between the ages of 6 and 10, including the "Tatze" badge as well as visits to the children's museum and the airport fire brigade.

The honorary and age department plays an equally important role by supporting the active emergency services and organizing events. Daniel Alt thanked all departments and the teams of supervisors for their participation. In another agenda point, Leon Noll was elected organizational train driver, while Sherin Petty and Thomas Bauer were included in the operations department.

honors and promotions

The meeting honored several members for their merits. Thomas Bauer, Kaya Gantenbrink, Simon Gerber, Dwayne Petty were promoted to firefighters. Tobias Ruth reached the rank of a main firefighter, while Timo Aßmann, Eric Dankert and Leon Noll were promoted to masters. Maximilian Zieg became a fire master and Dr. Christian Klein appointed chief fire chief. Susanne Lach joined the honor and age department. The honors were made by 1st deputy Ottmar Heck, district fire chief Andreas Matz and Uwe Reifenberger, who also paid tribute to the voluntary work of the fire brigade in their greetings.

A highlight of the meeting was the first -time awarding of the respiratory protection badge in Neuberg. A total of seven people received the bronze badge, three in silver and three in gold. In addition, the children's fire medal was awarded in various levels for many years of work in the children's group, as well as the Medal of Honor in silver for Kevin and a recognition bonus for Roland Fromm, who can look back on 50 years of active service.

Society faces an increased challenge in terms of voluntary work. Studies show a demographic pressure that also affects the volunteer fire brigade. The trend towards shorter engagements and frequent changes testifies to uncertainty in long -term expectations of volunteers. Therefore, the need to win new target groups is all the more urgent. Many volunteers wish more recognition and visibility in society, so it was emphasized in a study that the perception and information about the tasks and the time required in the volunteer fire brigade are important to ensure the commitment in the long term ( Beoherden-spiegel.de ).

In order to deal with these challenges, strategic management of the volunteering office must be developed to improve personnel development. The Neuberg fire brigade has shown that despite the difficulties, it is willing to break new ground and to promote the commitment of its members, which is also evident in the positive development of the youth fire brigade.