Injured people in a room fire in Ramersdorf-Perlach, a gas leak during rush hour on Sonnenstrasse, a major fire in a car repair shop in Trudering, a tree that fell on a patrol car in Schwabing – these are just a few of the highlights from the work of the Munich fire brigade in the past year. The emergency services helped to rescue a five-year-old who was in danger of drowning in the Isar water cylinder on the Marienklausensteg. And then there was still the “Kini”, a 40-kilogram copper bust of Ludwig II, to be fished out of the Isar and the angel in the community center in Pasing’s town hall to be dismantled before it could fall down. A passer-by noticed the unusual sloping position of the heavenly messenger figure.
The Munich professional defense was alerted to operations 89,815 times last year. That exceeded the number before the pandemic: in 2019 there were 88,382, in 2020 only 80,678. The rescue service had the most operations, deploying almost more than 64,000 times, followed by 17,402 technical assistance services, 6,662 fire alarms and almost 700 operations dangerous substances. But sometimes there was ado, namely 4318 false alarms.
The “Top 5” on the list of keywords include the opening of apartments in acute cases (5193 operations), if a helpless person is suspected to be inside, followed by the activation of fire alarm systems (3364), the rescue of small animals (1713), triggered smoke alarms ( 896) and the cleaning of streets (858).
The 1,677 men and 17 women who work 24-hour shifts were supported in more than 3,000 operations and with 275,000 hours worked by volunteer members of the volunteer fire brigades in Munich.
A student died from her severe burn injuries
In its annual report, the fire brigade counts the major fire in the student residence in Freimann in February 2021 with two serious injuries, including a 23-year-old student who later died due to her serious injuries, as well as the collision of an 83-year-old pedestrian with a tram, as one of the particularly bad cases in December. She also died days after the accident.
In the previous year, almost half a million emergency calls were received via the 112 at the integrated control center in the fire station 4 on Hessstraße, together with requests for patient transport or doctor-accompanying patient transport via the number 19222, which are also coordinated from there, it was almost 1.13 Millions.
The First Responders were alerted around 8,000 times, slightly more than in 2020. They quickly provide first aid if the ambulance has to travel further. The control center then sends an emergency fire engine to the patient. All six crew members are paramedics, at least one is trained as a paramedic or paramedic. The number of e-calls has also increased and has quadrupled to a good 1,200 since 2019. In the case of an e-call, cars independently make an emergency call – for example if the airbag has been deployed. For more than ten years, the fire brigade has also provided the emergency paramedic for the Christoph 1 rescue helicopter of the ADAC air rescue service.
But the fire brigade was also busy with major events such as the Euro 2020 European Championship, which was rescheduled for 2021. She prepared this with military precision over several years with many organizations. That paid off in the third game on June 23 in the storm that had been raging in Munich and the surrounding area with snow and hail since the night before. The helpers mastered more than 800 operations by eight o’clock the next morning. Or the large-scale exercise in October in the Aubinger tunnel, where a burning car and then a traffic accident in the other tube were simulated.
Bad planning makes operations difficult
But the spectrum of the fire brigade also included less spectacular tasks: fire inspections in buildings in preventive firefighting, training and further education, checks with regard to escape and rescue routes in corona test sites, pop-up stores, in outdoor areas, site inspections in the event of changes to traffic routes. In the case of the latter, in 17 out of 913 cases, the fire brigade found faulty planning, which made it more difficult to use them in the event of fires and danger to life for people or would have prevented turntable ladders and vehicles from reaching the scene of the accident altogether.
In animal rescue, pigeons have replaced bees as the most common reason for action. The fire brigade helped animals caught in nets 318 times. Ducks disobeyed traffic rules 199 times, mostly on family outings. Swarms of bees to be captured came third. The helpers also had to deal with three water turtles in the pond of the forest cemetery and a scorpion that they had brought with them in their holiday luggage.