Woman is stuck on the fifth floor - fire brigade does not help

Created: 08/05/2022, 11:40 am

By: Nicole Jost

A woman is stranded on the fifth floor.

The fire brigade seems to be the last resort to free them from the predicament.

But the emergency services do not come.

Langen – Inge Rössler is currently only leaving her apartment on the second floor in Lutherstrasse when she is accompanied.

The shock of her emergency a few days ago, in which she did not get the help she expected, is too deep.

The 88-year-old woman, who relies on a walker, is disappointed with the reaction of the fire brigade.

When it was very hot, Rössler recently stood in the stairwell for more than two hours and was ultimately carried down three floors in a wheelchair at great risk for everyone involved.

Without her nice neighbors and a dedicated employee of Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), who has taken responsibility, the elderly woman living alone would probably still be on the fifth floor, as op-online.de reports.

Inge Rössler no longer likes to get into the elevator in the building on Lutherstrasse.

© Jost

Langen: "It's not about life and death, but it was still an emergency for me"

But let's start at the beginning: Together with her daughter, she comes back from shopping around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

They both get into the elevator – although it doesn't stop on the second floor as ordered – it goes up to the fifth floor and stops there with a shake.

“The door opened and with the help of my daughter I was able to climb the small step up.

After that, the door closed again and the elevator didn't make a peep," says the elderly woman, who is very vigorous except for her mobility problems.

Together with neighbors who have meanwhile come out of the apartments, they consider what needs to be done.

The summoned caretaker does what he can.

He shuts down the broken elevator.

Inge Rössler reacts calmly and prudently.

She has an AWO emergency bracelet, the button of which she presses.

Thomas Kunz (56).

Employees of the Langen AWO are there quickly.

Alone, without a wheelchair, he cannot do anything.

Rössler rejected the idea of ​​accompanying the customer down the floors with a neighbor on her arm.

"It's just too dangerous for me, I can't hold myself up with my broken hip," she says.

Kunz decides to call the fire department.

"For such cases, we have the direct number of the rescue control center in Dietzenbach.

It's not a matter of life and death at this moment, but it was still an emergency for me," says Thomas Kunz.

Langen: Woman in a wheelchair is not an emergency for the rescue service control center

The feedback from the control center employee is sobering.

He is literally told that the fire and rescue services pick people up in emergencies, but do not bring them home.

He is also asked who would bear the costs of such an operation.

Kunz drives back to the AWO headquarters on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz to at least get a wheelchair for Inge Rössler.

She is not able to stand for long periods of time and the walker is also not designed for sitting for long hours.

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They rescue every cat out of the tree, but I'm stuck on the fifth floor!

Inge Rössler from Langen

After consulting his superior, who also calls the fire department again and gets the same answer, Kunz drives back in his wheelchair.

“I then dragged the rather heavy vehicle up to the fifth floor.

I was drenched in sweat,” reports the AWO employee.

Inge Rössler, meanwhile, is appalled by the news that there is no help from the fire brigade: "They save every cat out of the tree, but I stay on the fifth floor!" had such an action.

Circle reacts: emergency services in Langen acted correctly

So it becomes a dangerous command for which Thomas Kunz takes responsibility.

"If something happens, I'm the fool!" he says.

The trained specialist explains to a sporty neighbor how he has to lift the wheelchair with Inge Rössler so that he doesn't hurt himself.

A second neighbor runs away in front so that the man running backwards does not step into the void.

"Step by step they carried me down the stairs.

I was scared and held on to the wheelchair.

I'm so grateful to Mr. Kunz and the neighbors for taking this risk and bringing me home safely," says Inge Rössler.

What remains is a certain astonishment that there really is no help from the fire brigade or rescue service in such a situation.

"It's organized irresponsibility," says one of the neighbors.

Ursula Luh, spokeswoman for the district of Offenbach, confirms the correct behavior of the employees in the control center in Dietzenbach.

“As tragic as that is natural for the woman at this moment.

But the job of the fire service is to rescue people.

And this case in Langen was not a human rescue,” says Luh on request.

The fire brigades in the whole district are currently particularly tense because they are constantly on the alert because of the increased risk of forest fires.

Incidentally, the elevator, whose landing door lock was misaligned, is now back in operation.

(Nicole Jost)

No help came for Inge Rössler from Langen.

The situation was different in Hanau near Langen, where a police officer carried a disabled boy up ten floors.