The Leutstetten volunteer fire brigade is increasingly being deployed to Starnberg because there is a lack of staff.
Commander Michael Rattelmüller called on the city to take action - the false alarms in particular were detrimental to operational readiness.
Leutstetten
– The volunteer fire brigades in the Starnberg area are fermenting.
The Starnberg fire department suffers from massive personnel problems, which means that when an alarm is raised, one or more local fire departments are often alerted at the same time.
However, the bulk are false alarms from fire alarm systems.
This increases the burden on the volunteers - and the anger, as Leutstetten's commander Michael Rattelmüller made unmistakably clear at the annual general meeting: "In my opinion, the number of false alarms in the Starnberg city area has reached an unacceptable magnitude." He called on the city and city council to act quickly .
In 2022, the people of Leutstetten went out 47 times, 30 times for a fire operation - and 21 times because of a fire alarm system.
That's how many missions the military had in total just a few years ago.
Only nine of the 47 alerts concerned the Leutstetten area.
The problem is getting worse: this year there have been 18 alerts so far - only once was the location Leutstetten.
On the other 17 missions, the people from Leutstetten drove in the direction of Starnberg – but they rarely drive into Starnberg.
The operation is often canceled when the fire brigade is at the station north.
"This alerting tactic is not only frustrating for the deploying forces," said Rattelmüller, "but sooner or later leads to the alerts being ignored." Especially since even an aborted mission trip means for the active
that they are one to one and a half hours away from work - which leads to problems with employers.
In a real emergency, everyone comes, but the number of false alarms is "destructive and damages operational readiness and mood".
The high number of false alarms can no longer be provided on a voluntary basis.
Fire alarm systems: Alarms are often false alarms
The problem is that there are more than 100 such automatic fire alarm systems in Starnberg.
That such a system produces a false alarm once a year is considered normal.
But since you never know whether it is a false alarm or a real alarm, the defenses always come in with the appropriate strength.
It is annoying for the active people that on the one hand it is often the same systems (in the past often the seaside resort, but also at companies) that cause false alarms, on the other hand many operations could be avoided because, for example, the system is not adjusted accordingly during construction work and dust leads to an alarm.
Rattelmüller is also thinking of asking the operators to pay more for such operations in order to encourage them to be more diligent.
The Leutstetten commander asked the city to upgrade the Starnberg weir in such a way that the local defense forces - especially Leutstetten and Söcking - do not always have to move into the city.
According to Rattelmüller, the problems are also listed in the draft of the fire brigade requirement plan, which the city must finally deal with constructively.
The fire brigade is a duty, the city has a duty of care.
In addition, Rattelmüller demands that the issue of expense allowances be reorganized.
All volunteers receive compensation for the effort – not the time spent working;
this is transferred to the clubs in Starnberg, not to the active members.
The municipal code provides for this compensation.
City: "It's our turn"
The commander in charge Markus Grasl has long been calling for more full-time staff to solve the personnel problem (we reported).
The city council has now granted him twelve positions, emphasized Starnberg's third mayor Christiane Falk in Leutstetten.
Rooms in the Starnberg equipment house have also been converted for this purpose.
"It's our turn" on the question of false alarms, she said, also with regard to the statutes.
You look at examples, but a solution must be legally clean.
Franz Heidinger, the city council's fire department officer, sided with Rattelmüller.
At least loyal active people who drive a lot of assignments should be compensated in a suitable form.
Grasl has already done a lot, and some of the requirements plan has already been implemented.
(ike)
