If something happens to volunteer firefighters, they have to deal with the insurance themselves: Volker Knoch from Tutzing has had this experience. On Sunday, he took the opportunity - and spoke to Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann directly about the problem.
Traubing - Volker Knoch has a thick file at home that documents his suffering - and his anger with the Bavarian Accident Insurance (KUVB). The trigger: During a major fire in Tutzing on October 15, 2017, the volunteer firefighter fell on the back of a fire. The consequences: three operations, four weeks in hospital, two months in rehab. And above all: three months of incapacity to work. As an independent engineer, Knoch not only lost a lot of revenue during this time, but also his best customer. "This damage cannot be quantified," he says.
In his view, the Tutzinger did not receive adequate compensation from the insurance company for a long time (we reported). He therefore tried several times to get in touch with Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann. It worked on Sunday. Knoch did not take his thick folder with him to the CSU New Year's reception at Traubinger Buttlerhof. "I would have just killed him with that," he says in an interview with Mercury from Starnberg. In terms of content, of course. Instead, the 53-year-old gave Herrmann a photo of his burned back and told the minister what was on his mind. "Nothing will change for me. But the insurance situation is generally bad for the fire brigade, ”Knoch says and reports, not with too much hope: Herrmann wants to look at the case.
"I have to talk to the interior minister as a little light."
You don't have to worry about anything after an accident: fire fighters would hear that regularly, says Knoch. But in his experience that is not true. He had to do without vacation and was not paid any compensation for physiotherapy. Only after a year of bureaucratic back and forth had he been awarded the amount that was due to him. Knoch's explanation: Because there is already a shortage of personnel at the fire departments, the insurance problem is “not properly publicized. And I have to talk to the interior minister as a little light. I am not a commander or district fire council ”.
For the 53-year-old, “the obvious things are reversed. The fire brigade should always move out and fetch cats from trees. But nobody really cares that they are reasonably insured ”.
Knoch also suffers two and a half years after the accident: a herniated disc has nested under the scar on his back. Another rehab is imminent, maybe even another operation. However, the Tutzinger only wants to have the bare essentials because he is asked to pay for so many things. The KUVB declined to confirm the herniated disc by expert opinion. Knoch is therefore suing the social court.
Bone is still with the fire department. But he rarely does missions - he only helps out when his colleagues are "definitely understaffed", he reports and then says a sad sentence: "The thought goes with me that if something happens I have the same theater again . "
Also read:
Representatives of all eight selectable groups in Tutzing in one place: The youth and leisure club JM made sure of that. The evening turned into a competition for the local youth.
