Difficult future for the Percha fire department

Created: 01/17/2022, 11:01 am

By: Michael Stuerzer

This is how firefighting works, as the Percha fire brigade demonstrated at a day of action a few years ago.

Days like this are important for recruiting members - but this is proving to be increasingly difficult.

© Fire Department Percha

The Percha fire brigade gets a new commander.

The new boss has to deal with difficult questions, because the military lacks staff - the existence is endangered.

Percha

– Thomas Fersch, chairman of the Percha fire brigade association, puts it in a nutshell: “People want to live by Lake Starnberg, but have nothing to do with the place.” The Percha volunteer fire brigade feels this because the active ones are leaving out. It was 21 and a teenager in 2021, on paper. Now there are fewer. That is why the weir is threatened with the fate of the colleagues in Hanfeld, who have dissolved their weir for the same reasons and are a fire-fighting group of the Söcking fire brigade. This prospect is "heavy in Fersch's stomach" and the new commander has to deal with it.

After six years as vice and ten as commander, Thomas Lang gave up the post at the end of 2021 (we reported). For him it was always clear that the question of "firefighting group or not" would come up to the fire service. The candidate for the successor is Florian Brabetz (37), who has been with the fire department for 23 years and used to be a district fire chief until he took a break for family reasons. The election will take place in writing this week. The second commander, Patrick Lang, presented the report on the missions, there were 53 plus five with the command vehicle of the district that had meanwhile been handed over to Oberpfaffenhofen. The fire service was called 23 times due to fire alarms alone, 22 times it was a false alarm. 233 hours of use came together. Due to the corona, there was less practice, but the military was actively involved in equipment maintenance and other training. on average 4,8 men at the alarm are "far too few," said Patrick Lang, as well as an average of five during the exercises. However, the population seems to have less interest in the military, he said with a view to the small number of new acquisitions - there was one interested party who could not come because nothing happened because of Corona.

Mayor Patrick Janik wants to discuss the future of the military with the new commander. In the meantime, the finished fire brigade requirement plan is available, which makes statements on this. But he hasn't read it through yet, said Janik at the online annual meeting of the military. But: "We have a problem, not only, but also in Percha." The Hanfeld fire brigade was also restructured because a new vehicle is stationed there - without the appropriate technology, it is difficult to attract new members. The aim is to make them independent again when the defense is stronger. But it makes sense “if the Percha fire brigade exists”. The city councilors present, such as Eva Pfister or Matthias Frühauf, also saw it that way.

Thomas Fersch's report was short - almost nothing happened because of the pandemic. The association was on the road twice with a delegation and started a campaign to attract members. The association invested in a new LED lettering on the tool shed, which is also intended to prevent "headless drivers" from blocking up the garages of the military. Fersch thanked members and the population for their support. He remarked to the city administration that the club is still waiting for reimbursement for the costs of the windows in the goals, which he had advanced.

There was a by-election for the board of directors: Andreas Böck resigned from his position as secretary for professional reasons, Sebastian Preiß is his successor.

There would also have been honors, which was a bit difficult online.

Ulrich Brabetz was to be honored for 50 years, Leonhard and Johannes Fersch for ten years in service.

The board also wanted to say goodbye to Thomas Lang, which was not possible.

The previous commander didn't want any gifts anyway, instead he asked for donations to the children's cancer charity.