Breaking down doors on a voluntary basis - Prenzlauer Berg Nachrichten

Ten men and women are standing in a stairwell on Schieritzstrasse, trying to force open a door. You take your time and try out different tools. The mood is relaxed, those present know each other well, some of them for decades. If someone doesn't manage to break open the door directly, the other people present offer both tips and ironic sayings. The people belong to the Prenzlauer Berg Volunteer Fire Department. They train in different ways to break down a door in case of an emergency. Every Thursday evening, members gather for an exercise like this. As volunteer fire brigades, they take on the same tasks as the professional fire brigade. In addition to breaking down doors, they also extinguish fires, free people from awkward situations and help with storm damage.

Whoever calls the fire brigade first ends up at the Charlottenburg-Nord control center at an emergency call point. Targeted queries then generate a keyword that is sent to the fire brigade's emergency services and tells them what happened. Ultimately, it is only the address of the place of action that decides whether the professional or the volunteer fire brigade is deployed.

Because the professional fire brigade sometimes does not have enough people on duty, the volunteer fire brigade has to help out, and the two groups only meet at the scene. Sometimes two fire engines and a siren from different fire brigades have to drive to the scene in order to get enough emergency services together.

Actually, staff shortages are a big issue in both the volunteer and professional fire brigades, as fire chief Ronny Tenner explains. Sometimes the staff is not enough to “get a car full”, as the emergency services say. A team should always have six to seven people that travel to the site. But the Prenzlauer Berg volunteer fire brigade is probably one of the few guards in Germany that doesn't have this problem. “There are far more applicants than can be accepted. In some months we get inquiries in the good double-digit range," says Tenner. There are only 47 active members in total, eight of whom are women. Tenner assures that this is a high percentage compared to other jobs in Berlin.

Three more members will join the volunteer fire brigade today, two of the three new members are women. Twenty years ago, according to Tenner, this was frowned upon. At the time, some colleagues would still have claimed that women had no place in the volunteer fire brigade. But today it is also the character that decides whether someone can become a member of the Prenzlauer Berg volunteer fire brigade. "You have to be able to rely on each other from now on," says Tenner, speaking of camaraderie. “It is the crowd that moves things. You have to want that and live it.”

When you enter the fire station on Schieritzstraße, which connects to the stairwell where the volunteers are practicing breaking down a door, you find yourself in the hall with what is supposed to be the star of the volunteer fire department: a large red fire truck. Next to it: lots of space, two of the four walls are densely hung with uniforms. In the main hall, the volunteers line up in three rows. Everyone wears their uniform. The black trousers with the glowing stripe, the matching jacket, shoes and the yellow helmet. In addition, everyone is wearing an FFP2 mask, which they are currently also wearing during operations. As in physical education, they are counted, and the groups learn different techniques in three stations.

Breaking open doors is part of the training

In the locker room, a volunteer shows a group of eight people in full fireman's gear how to pry open a door using a pry tool called the Hooligentool. The man asks the group questions, tells something about the history of the tool and unpacks the components. All participants in the group listen carefully, although most of them already know how it works. This is also confirmed by Coline, a volunteer firefighter who has been with us for six years. "But it's still good to keep practicing. New equipment is also inspected here”. The volunteers help each other during the exercise and try out the tool on different doors.

The togetherness is cordial, the firefighters fool around with each other, but are still concentrated. Although the members only get an expense allowance for their work, you can tell that they mean business. Because a third of the members actually deal with everything to do with the topic of fire in their day job and work for the professional fire brigade. During the exercises on Thursday evenings, they are particularly teased that they should complete these in the most routine way, which is usually the case. But if they are clumsy, they laugh together.

Nobody comes after the fire brigade

The three newcomers have been attending the weekly exercises for three months now, but weren't allowed to touch anything. As of today, they can finally slip into their uniforms and begin the intensive part of their training. At the fire brigade school, they learn what it takes to be a firefighter every other day in the evening and at the weekend for ten weeks. But that is only the first step. This is followed by training in rescue services, a medical examination and your criminal record will also be checked.

Some firefighters, however, start getting involved when they are still children. Florian, for example, is in his mid-30s and has been with the volunteer fire brigade for 25 years. He started when he was a child in Brandenburg. The volunteers in the youth department are not yet allowed to drive missions, but they learn everything they need to do in a playful way.

Like Tenner, Florian finds that the commitment to the volunteer fire brigade in the countryside and in other federal states differs noticeably from Berlin. For example, a fire brigade cannot call a specialist on land if they do not know what to do. "People always say nobody comes after the fire brigade. That's really the case in Brandenburg." In addition, there is more bureaucracy in Berlin. Tenner asserts that it is much easier to get membership in another federal state.

Working for the volunteer fire brigade is a big balancing act, as Tenner says. Although it is a voluntary position, the members have to “invest a massive amount of time”. In addition to the shifts, training should also be carried out, and attendance every Thursday is also obligatory. The firefighters have to spend at least ten hours a month on voluntary work. This is often both a family and a professional challenge, says Tenner.

Volunteer firefighters must be allowed to help

If an operation is particularly large and requires more workers than the fire station's shift, the volunteers are contacted via a beeper. You then have 20 minutes to report to the station. Even if they are actually working. Coline says that this hasn't been a problem with any of her employers so far. They even see it very positively. That's how it is with most of them, says Tenner. In addition, employers are legally obliged to release the volunteer firefighters in an emergency.

Coline says she works a shift two to three times a month. These last twelve hours, and she almost always has to move out. In the six years that she has been involved with the volunteer fire department in Prenzlauer Berg, there have only been two shifts in which no call has come. Coline estimates that about a quarter of the incidents involve a fire, no matter how small. But they were also often called because of a slick of oil, to open doors and during a storm. First aid is also important. The firefighters are often on site before the rescue and then have to take care of the injured. "I'm constantly resuscitating," says Coline.

"The biggest enemy in an operation is hectic," says Florian. Although he tries to take a deep breath to avoid that when he's deployed, sometimes it just has to be done very quickly. For example, when firefighters have to wear respiratory masks. Coline has the most respect for operations that involve people in the home. "The fears are very individual," she says. Florian, for example, says that he finds being involved in car accidents particularly bad when he discovers child seats in the back seat because he is a father.

“People have forgotten how to think logically”

Christian has been involved with the volunteer fire brigade for 25 years - and that continuously in the Prenzlauer Berg fire station. In the past, he says, he was always keen on assignments and wanted to apply what he had learned quickly. Now he is also happy “if nothing happens. Then everyone will be fine." But that took a long time.

Since Christian's beginnings with the volunteer fire brigade in Prenzlauer Berg, it's not just his personal attitude that has changed. Because the operations for which the volunteer fire brigade is called for help today are very different than 25 years ago. “People become helpless. People know less how to help themselves.” The smoke detectors are said to have brought about a major change. In addition to fewer fires, they also ensure more false alarms - and more operations where there is nothing to extinguish. Nevertheless, the volunteer fire brigade is indispensable. Because when people no longer know how to help themselves, it is all the more important that they can reach someone at 112 who will.