The Bavarian fire brigades and the Bavarian farmers will officially work together in the future in order to be able to extinguish forest fires quickly, for example. “The machines that the agricultural sector has available are often very well suited to be used in disaster relief,” said the President of the Bavarian Farmers’ Association, Günther Felßner, at the presentation of the cooperation in Eichstätt.
Farmers are already often on hand spontaneously when the worst comes to the worst. “But especially when it comes to regional issues, you may not know what technology is available in the next town, how to use it and how to get hold of it,” explained Felßner. That’s why the “Red Farmers” will in future be able to enter in a database what equipment they have and how many liters of firefighting water they can transport – important information that the head of operations will then have access to.
With the increasing number of fires in fields or forests, the mostly voluntary fire brigades in Bavaria are sometimes urgently dependent on farmers: the farmers’ large barrels can bring significantly more extinguishing water to the scene of the fire, and their vehicles are designed for the terrain. “A vehicle that serves the community and prevents disasters does not always have to be red,” stressed the chairman of the Bavarian State Fire Brigade Association, Johann Eitzenberger.
The cooperation, which has already been introduced across the board in Rhineland-Palatinate, also has advantages for farmers, for example in terms of insurance cover. Based on the experience there, the initiators in the Free State expect their project to be a success – especially since it is estimated that around 30 percent of active firefighters in the Free State have an agricultural background.