To warn citizens: Bavaria is missing 15,000 sirens – "We see an urgent need"
Created: 07/03/2022, 06:11
By: Carina Zimniok
An alarm siren stands on a house roof.
(Symbol photo) © Jens Büttner/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
In an emergency in Bavaria, not all citizens can be warned.
The reason: there are no sirens.
Now the municipalities are to get new sirens - but there is a lack of money.
Moosburg - Last week in Moosburg: The weather service warned of thunderstorms, in fact there was a storm, heavy rain, hail in the late afternoon.
Trees fell in Moosburg, killing a vacationer.
In such a storm, the sirens should have wailed to warn everyone.
But they didn't: The power failed across the board and therefore five out of six sirens didn't work.
A storm in Garmisch-Patenkirchen also caused considerable damage from hail.
Bavaria is missing at least 15,000 sirens to warn citizens
That could happen anywhere in Bavaria: Conventional motorized sirens have no emergency power supply - too expensive.
And a great many communities no longer even have a siren to warn citizens.
There isn't a single one left in the whole of Munich.
According to the State Fire Brigade Association, at least 15,000 sirens are missing in Bavaria.
The Free State has a siren problem.
And it will take years to resolve.
Politicians are also pushing for this.
It's not just about the alarm in the event of fire or flooding - it's also about civil protection.
After the Second World War, 80,000 sirens were installed on the roofs of schools and government agencies nationwide, and there were 20,000 air raid protection sirens in Bavaria alone.
Then came reunification, the Cold War was over.
Fire brigade veteran Gerhard Bullinger, who was a district fire officer in Ebersberg for 25 years, well remembers the euphoric atmosphere after 1990, when people believed in lasting peace and civil defense alarms were no longer considered necessary.
"Sirens used to be the responsibility of the Federal Post Office," he recalls.
When the telecommunications network was privatized, most of the plate-shaped sirens were removed - for reasons of cost.
“That was a mistake,” says Bullinger.
But with the development of new techniques, it was considered sufficient to warn of danger via radio, television, the Internet or SMS.
It quickly became clear that this would not work.
Video: Large-scale operation after a severe storm in Moosburg
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Too few sirens in Bavaria - other warning systems not reliable enough
Jürgen Weiß is responsible for the topic at the state fire brigade association.
As early as 2016, he took part in meetings with the Ministry of the Interior and the municipal council.
"We agreed: only the siren reliably alerts the public - even at night," says Weiß.
All other warning systems, such as mobile phone apps, are not sufficiently widespread.
And not reliable enough.
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In fact, the turnaround came, pushed by the flood disaster in the Ahr valley.
"We see an urgent need to be able to better warn the population," said Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU).
The special funding program to improve the warning infrastructure has been in place since 2021.
Now everyone should be reached with a siren again.
For 2021, the Free State received 6.5 million euros from the federal government, which is responsible for civil protection, and in 2022 it should be another 6.8 million.
Funding is not enough for nationwide coverage by sirens
But it is difficult to achieve nationwide coverage.
This is also due to the lack of money.
The special program for new sirens is "hopelessly underfunded," says Wilfried Schober from the Bavarian Municipal Council.
With the funding, the district of Upper Bavaria could set up ten sirens in just six municipalities.
Herrmann has asked the federal government to invest ten billion euros within the next ten years.
A nationwide expansion cannot be achieved for all countries with the 88 million euros made available so far.
Siren expansion takes up to several years due to waiting times
It sometimes takes years for a municipality to be able to buy a siren: there are only four specialist companies nationwide, and the waiting lists are long.
The market leader also feels this: Hörmann Warnsysteme from Kirchseeon in the district of Ebersberg.
There was great interest in the stand at the Interschutz trade fair, reports Managing Director Anna Hörmann.
Your company is expanding capacities and is desperately looking for employees.
There is still no shortage of material, but one expects it due to the crisis.
Incidentally, the new sirens also work in the event of a power failure, they have batteries or rechargeable batteries.
In Moosburg there is already a new model that also howled during the storm.
However, these copies need digital radio.
It will probably take until 2025 for every municipality to be equipped with it. And there is another problem: finding a location is difficult.
Hardly anyone wants the siren in their neighborhood.
