Kassel/Hofbieber (dpa/lhe) – The State Fire Brigade Association Hessen (LFV Hessen) registers an increased turnover among executives in the voluntary fire brigade. Decades ago, military leaders, city or community fire inspectors were sometimes in office for 20 years, reported Harald Popp, managing director of LFV Hessen, in Kassel. That is no longer the case today. “It’s an increased burden to be a manager,” said Popp.
Administrative tasks, organizing exercises for the comrades: Such things cost, for example, Heiko Kremer, who has been a municipal fire inspector in Hofbieber for 15 years, in his honorary post, a high three-digit hourly amount per year. According to Kremer, this requires understanding families and employers. Kremer would like the courses that managers have to complete to be made easier.
Harald Popp, on the other hand, considers “the current level of courses to be necessary”. Other incentives, for example from the municipalities, make more sense. He is thinking of guaranteed kindergarten places with reduced fees, free entry to the swimming pool and free parking spaces.
Neither Popp nor Kremer observed any problematic changes among the volunteer firefighters overall. These numbers are stable. Most recently there were around 71,000 volunteer firefighters in Hesse. This year, the Hessian Ministry of the Interior is investing 43 million euros in fire-fighting vehicles and houses as well as to promote volunteer work – according to its own statements, a record sum.
