Fire near Marsberg: Fire brigades from Waldeck-Frankenberg provide support
A massive forest fire, which broke out last week in Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, and rapidly spread to a forested area of around 100 hectares, has in recent days required the tireless efforts of numerous emergency services. Many fire brigades from Waldeck-Frankenberg were also deployed.
Neighbourly assistance across district and state borders
Because: due to the enormous spread of the flames, the Hochsauerland district had requested official support from Hesse, which the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and the Kassel Regional Council provided – and assembled a powerful civil protection contingent comprising over 250 helpers from Hesse, which also included firefighters from Edertal, Frankenberg, Bad Wildungen, Waldeck, Battenberg, Allendorf and Hatzfeld. Prior to this, fire brigades from Diemelsee, Willingen and Bad Arolsen, as part of the neighbourly firefighting assistance scheme, had already been deployed; they played an active role on the ground – and, together with their fellow firefighters, had already provided swift and unbureaucratic neighbourly assistance across district and state borders.
Manual labour on a steep slope
The volunteers from Hesse took on key tasks in the disaster-stricken area and were guided in this by local leaders. District Fire Chief Philip Windisch from Waldeck-Frankenberg led the units on site alongside Deputy District Fire Inspector Michael von Bredow from the Schwalm-Eder district, whilst the Kassel Regional Council coordinated the overall operation. As the initial fire-fighting efforts had already been successful, the local fire brigades concentrated on the labour-intensive mop-up operations. Firefighters from Waldeck-Frankenberg combed through a steep slope metre by metre in search of hidden pockets of fire. In sweltering heat, pockets of embers in the rugged terrain were painstakingly exposed and extinguished using hand tools to prevent the fire from reigniting underground. The fire is now under control.
Praise for emergency services
Whilst Hesse’s Minister for the Interior, Roman Poseck, has already praised the efforts of all those involved, the First District Councillor, Karl-Friedrich Frese, and Waldeck-Frankenberg’s District Fire Chief, Philip Windisch, have also highlighted the unprecedented dedication of the firefighters: “What our emergency services have achieved here under extreme conditions deserves the utmost respect. Working on that steep slope in this heat was gruelling. Yet the motivation and professionalism of our fire brigades remained unwavering from the very first moment,” they both praise. “Co-operation across the state border went very smoothly. This shows that, in an emergency, we can rely on one another implicitly. A big thank you to everyone involved.”
Keywords:
Specialist Service: Ambulance Service, Fire and Disaster Management