Fire brigade competition launched

The "Fire brigade of the future" competition organised by Stadtwerke Gießen entered the hot phase on 26 May: The competition jury, consisting of representatives of SWG, the advisory board of the district fire brigade association, district administrator Anita Schneider, Grünberg's mayor Frank Ide, district fire inspector Mario Binsch and the head of the Giessen professional fire brigade, Harald Rehmann, wished the participants every success. The committee that will now decide on the competition entries also includes press representatives Constanze Schleenbecker from Hessischer Rundfunk, Norbert Schmidt from Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung and Jochen Lamberts from Gießener Anzeiger.
A total of 19 volunteer fire brigades from Giessen and the Central Hesse region had submitted their applications by 30 April, and all 19 were admitted to the competition after critical examination of the projects. The participating teams now have until 31 October to implement their respective projects, with which they are to prove that they are "the fire brigade of the future". The three best-rated projects will then receive cash prizes of 1,500, 1,000 and 500 euros.
"We can't do without the volunteer fire brigades," said District Administrator Anita Schneider at the launch event. It is therefore important to promote their commitment, and the competition that has now been launched among the various fire brigades makes a contribution to this. District fire inspector Mario Binsch and SWG company spokesperson Ina Weller expressed similar sentiments. "We are very excited about the results of the competition," said Ina Weller. They had already seen some remarkably creative entries when examining the competition documents. This shows how important the incentive provided by the "Fire brigade of the future" project is. For reasons of fairness, however, the jury did not want to comment on which competition entries had already made a good impression before being realised. "We take a very open approach," says district fire inspector Mario Binsch. "We don't just use effort and use of materials as criteria, but above all the idea behind it - so smaller teams also have a chance."