The operational capability of the fire brigades in Oberschleißheim is questionable – and with a planned new residential area in Mittenheim it would even be catastrophic. This alarming balance resulted in the updating of the fire brigade requirement plan for the community, which was two years late. The main problem is the railway barriers, which impede the firefighters’ journeys to the equipment house and to operations. The fire station is on the eastern outskirts, but most of the active people live to the west of the railway crossing. This is also where most of the operations are recorded, the Mittenheim development area would be in the south-west at the maximum distance from the fire station.
“The fire brigades in the municipality of Oberschleißheim are therefore not sufficiently efficient,” says the 66-page analysis. “Urgent need for action” is seen above all “with regard to the availability of personnel in the appropriate time”. The technical equipment, on the other hand, is not lacking; a “very good level” is attested here. According to the evaluation, the Oberschleißheim and Badersfeld fire brigades only managed to meet the ten-minute help deadline in 48 percent of the alarms; values around 80 percent are considered tolerable.
The requirements plan recommends a new fire station or at least a branch west of the railway line as a central measure. The pending renovation of the fire station on Freisinger Strasse would not bring anything, as it would only cement the untenable condition. “A new fire station would be sporty for us,” said Mayor Markus Böck (CSU) on Tuesday evening in the municipal council in view of the municipality’s financial difficulties; Current new construction projects for fire stations in the district are estimated at more than 20 million euros each, and that was before the construction price explosion caused by the war in Ukraine.
“That seems threatening to me,” says Ingrid Lindbüchl from the Greens
Nevertheless, the committee called for immediate reactions to the requirements plan. “That seems threatening to me,” said Ingrid Lindbüchl (Greens) and suggested a workshop on further strategies for action, an approach that the municipal council had already chosen twice when planning the childcare facilities. Free Voter spokesman Stefan Vohburger also called for “measures to be developed as a matter of urgency”.
As accompanying measures, the requirements plan suggests, for example, that firefighters should be able to work mobile at the existing fire station. This “home office” at the equipment house would at least drastically reduce the time from the alarm to the dispatch. It is also recommended to add a second full-time employee. In particular, the vehicle with the turntable ladder must be given a new, more central location.
In the long term, special-purpose associations or mergers should be considered in order to optimize cooperation across municipal boundaries. The Mittenheim development area, for example, could be reached much more effectively by the Unterschleißheim fire brigade than by their colleagues in Oberschleißheim. Thomas Laser (FW) pointed out the additional serious problem that the fire brigade keeps losing strength because there is practically no free living space on site. He demanded that the municipality give the fire department a lot of weight in its own housing project in Frauenfeld or in the case of occupancy rights in new development areas.
With an average of around 400 calls a year, the Oberschleißheim and Badersfeld fire brigades have to cope with a far above-average number of calls given the size of the population. The main reason is the numerous operations on the freeways around the town. In addition, the fire brigade, as one of the pioneers of this offer, operates a “First Responder System” for medical first aid. With the progressive expansion of the veterinary faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University on the Veterinäranger, the number of deployments will continue to increase, the requirements plan warns. After all, the potential for danger will not increase significantly as a result of the settlement.