Berlin Fire Brigade

Back in the mid-19th century, Berlin suffered a series of devastating fires. The city grew rapidly and buildings became more and more crowded. Resources could no longer keep up with the size of the buildings. Therefore, The King of Prussia decided in 1851 to command Ludwig Scabell to set up a professional fire brigade and ensure its training and equipment .[4] Scabell created the Berlin Fire Brigade with the support of the former Berlin Police Chief Carl von Hickeldey. Within a very short period, almost 1,000 men were hired and trained while the professional fire stations were built. In the same year, the world's first electrical fire alarm network was installed in Berlin. The implementation was carried out by the German company Siemens & Halske. The innovation connected the headquarters at the Molkenmarkt with 24 fire stations and all police stations within the city. In 1854 the very first newly built fire station was opened, two years later a new water supply network with 1,520 hydrants went into operation in Berlin. Scabell retired in 1875 and was succeeded by Gustav Witte. In 1879 together, with the engineer and manufacturer Greiner, they received the German patent for the world's first turntable ladder.[5] The Berlin Fire Brigade put their first turntable ladder, built by the German company BAMAG, into service at the main fire station in 1882.[6]

In 1901 the International Fire Protection Exhibition took place in Berlin to mark the 50th anniversary of the professional fire brigade.[7] In 1906 at the fire station in Berlin-Grunewald, the first gasoline fire truck in Germany equipped with a fire pump was put into service.[8] In 1908 Berlin purchased its first electric fire engine. [9][10] During the First World War from 1914 to 1918, 700 officers had to go from the Berlin Fire Brigade to the Wehrmacht, where part of the firefighters were deployed in the newly created flamethrower regiments.[11]

Berlin Fire Brigade in August 1945

On December 15, 1933, the term Feuerlöschpolizei (lit. 'Firefighting Police') was introduced for all Prussian fire brigades. The fire brigades throughout the German Reich were placed under the Ordnungspolizei, abbreviated Orpo (lit. 'Order Police'), in 1938 and called the Feuerschutzpolizei (lit. 'Fire Protection Police'). The previously red fire vehicles, blue uniforms and fire service ranks were replaced by green fire vehicles, green uniforms and police ranks. They were issued firearms and batons. With few exceptions, the Nazi-led fire protection police did not intervene in the November pogroms in 1938 when the synagogues in Berlin were set on fire.

After the Second World War, six of the 38 professional fire stations were lost. Of the 51 volunteer fire stations, three were totally destroyed while twelve were only partially.[12] On November 21, 1948, the Berlin Fire Brigade was divided into two separate authorities in East and West Berlin.[13] The first post-war fire stations were built on both sides during the 1950s. Technology and training in East and West developed separately. In 1952 the East Berlin Fire Brigade was incorporated into the Volkspolizei, abbreviated VoPo, (lit. 'German People's Police') as "Organ F" and issued firearms and batons.[14] East Berlin also received a "west turntable ladder" to protect the massive buildings on Stalinallee, today known as Karl-Marx-Allee. The turntable ladder type DL 52 manufactured by Metz, with a rescue height of over 50 meters, had a car that could be used as an elevator.[15] In the days after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, the West Berlin Fire Brigade had to keep using its jumping blankets because people jumped from buildings on the demarcation line towards freedom in West Berlin. In 1969, the West Berlin Rescue Service was incorporated into the fire brigade. Since then, the West Berlin Fire Brigade has also been responsible for emergency services. In East Berlin, rescue services were carried out by the rescue office independently of the fire brigade until reunification. Since the early 1980s, the West Berlin fire brigade has repeatedly been involved in May riots in Berlin-Kreuzberg. A fire truck from the Berlin-Kreuzberg fire station was completely destroyed on the night of May 1, 1987.[16]

Germans stand on top of the Wall in front of Brandenburg Gate in the days before the Wall was torn down

On October 3, 1990, the day of German reunification, the East Berlin Fire Brigade was handed over to the West Berlin Fire Chief Wolfgang Scholz. At that time, the fire brigade had a total staff of 3,788 in West Berlin and 1,112 in East Berlin. In 1992 W. Scholz retired and Albrecht Broemme was appointed as the new Fire Chief of Berlin.[17] In 1993/94, due to the high volume of urban traffic and the numerous new measures to calm the increase, new vehicle concepts were tested in the city districts: The firefighting vehicle LHF 16/12 City, short "City", was 2.2 m shorter, 20 cm narrower; and therefore, more agile than the conventional LHF 16 of the Berlin Fire Brigade. After the successful testing phase, 41 vehicles of this type were ordered from 1994 to 1997.[18] On New Year's Eve 2000 there was a total failure of the IT control center, including the fallback level. For several hours it was not possible to place emergency calls. The vehicles were sent on patrols. There was only a marginal connection with the so-called Year 2000 problem.[19] The affected operational control system FIS was replaced in 2000 by the more modern IGNIS and in 2017 by its successor IGNIS-Plus.[20] In May 2006, Fire Chief Albrecht Broemme became president of the Technisches Hilfswerk. Initially, his deputy Wilfried Graefling became the temporary director and eventually the new Fire Chief of Berlin in November 2006. Graefling left the Berlin Fire Brigade at the end of July 2018 and retired. His successor since August 1, 2018 is Karsten Homrighausen.[21] In 2018, colleagues from the Berliner Fire Brigade protested in front of the Rotes Rathaus, the home to the governing mayor and the government (the Senate of Berlin) of the Federal state of Berlin, under the catchphrase "BerlinBrennt" (lit. 'Berlin is Burning'). The causes included the increasing number of operations, inadequate equipment including vehicles and materials, as well as the lack of personnel[22]- before the reunification of Berlin in 1990, only West Berlin had more staff than the reunited city from West and East in 2018.

The fire brigade maintains its own museum located in Berlin-Tegel. It shows the history of the Berlin Fire Brigade in an exhibition.

The training and further education is concentrated at the Berlin Fire and Rescue Service Academy, short BFRA. The main campus is located at Schulzendorfer Straße in the north-west of Berlin in the district of Berlin-Reinickendorf. Another training location is situated in an office complex in Berlin-Tegel. In particular, medical training and the training of station officers and incident commanders are carried out there.

There are advanced plans to relocate the Berlin Fire and Rescue Service Academy to the area of the former Berlin TXL-Airport.

The LHF (fire and rescue vehicle, German: Lösch- und Hilfeleistungsfahrzeug) is a special vehicle concept of the Berlin Fire Brigade. The vehicles can be used for firefighting as well as for various technical assistance (e.g. car accident, train accident, door opening, cutting, sealing). Their loading is very similar to that of "HLF", which are used very frequently in Germany. However, LHF in Berlin are shorter and therefore more agile in narrow streets.

The first LHF was put into service with the fire brigade in early 1983. Compared to the extinguishing group vehicles and tank fire engines that were common at the time, the LHF is more extensively equipped with devices for technical assistance. It should be an all-round vehicle for firefighting and assistance.[35] The LHF 16/16 has a fire pump with a capacity of 1,600 L / min at 8 bar, a water tank with 1,600 L and a permanently installed foam agent tank with 400 L foam concentrate. For technical assistance, the vehicle is equipped with a hydraulic rescue kit consisting of rescue scissors, spreader and a rescue ram with an additional hand pump.

The LHF 16/12 City (short: City) has been used by the Berlin Fire Brigade since 1994. Compared to its predecessor, it has shrunk by 2.2 m in length and 20 cm in width, which means better maneuverability in road traffic.[18] The LHF 16/12 also has a fire pump with an output of 1,600 L / min at 8 bar. The water container now only contains 1,200 L of water, the permanently installed foam agent container still contains 100 L of foam concentrate. For technical assistance, the vehicle, like its predecessor, is equipped with a portable generator and rescue kits. The LHF 16/12 is also available with all-wheel drive.[36]

A new generation of LHF has been in use since the beginning of 2007, which is equipped with compressed air foam systems (CAFS, German: Druckluftschaum). The LHF 20/12 has a fire pump with an output of 2,000 L / min at 10 bar, 1,200 L of water, 100 L of foam concentrate and a DLS system (CAFS 1,000 or 1,200). The vehicle is equipped with a hydraulic rescue kit for technical assistance and also with an automatic transmission and a reversing camera. The fleet of the Berlin Fire Brigade has been renewed since 2018. In August 2019, the fire brigade got twelve new LHF 20/12 AT (lit. 'Advanced Technology'). By 2021, seventy more LHF 20/12 AT models are to be delivered.

The LHF 20/8 was only procured for the volunteer fire departments and not for the professional fire brigade. The LHF 20/8 is based on a Mercedes-Benz Atego with all-wheel drive and has an 800-liter water tank (a 1,000 liter water tank is installed). The pumps deliver 2,000 liters / min at 10 bar. The vehicle body was developed by Rosenbauer.[37]

In 2011, two LHF 10/5 could be procured to replace the old LHF-K. The vehicles are the smallest LHF in Berlin. Like the LHF 20/8, they were only procured for the volunteer fire departments because the space circumstances did not allow for a larger LHF (bridges, fire stations that were too small). However, almost the same equipment is in the vehicles as in the larger fire engines. A Mercedes-Benz Vario 818D with a Rosenbauer body (Compactline) was selected as the chassis. The two LHF 10/5 are stationed in Rauchfangswerder and Wilhelmshagen. Their water capacity reaches 500 liters.

In September 2020, the first fully electrical fire truck (eLHF) was put into service for testing by the Berlin fire brigade. It results from a project of the Program for Sustainable Development (BENE 1213-B4-N), which is co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development. The trial run will last until 2022.

The Berlin Fire Brigade is responsible for the city's emergency services. The vast majority of annual operations are rescue operations. At the Berlin Fire Brigade, mainly Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicles with box bodies are used as ambulances.[38] This design, in which the case can be detached from the chassis, enables a separate exchange of body or chassis after an accident or in the event of a technical defect. There is also an "Ambulance I" (intensive) for patients with highly contagious diseases,[39] the Ambulance S (S = German shortcut: schwer; translation English: heavy) for the transport of overweight emergency patients[40] and the Stroke Emergency Vehicle (STEMO) for stroke patients.[41] As soon as 90% of the ambulances in Berlin are in use at the same time, the fire brigade control center calls out a kind of "state of emergency" and dispatches firefighters from fire engines to ambulances.[42] In 2018, this happened 41 times, which resulted in delayed arrival times.