The "Fire Service of the Future" innovation award has established itself over the past three years. The fourth round starts in 2014 - the application deadline is 30 April.
In their free time, they extinguish fires and save lives - the members of the volunteer fire brigades from the district of Giessen. The volunteers also demonstrate their creativity time and time again when it comes to recruiting new recruits and informing the public about the work of the fire brigades. Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) and the district fire brigade association (KFV) have been honouring such projects with the "Fire brigade of the future" innovation award since 2011 - in 2014 for the fourth time. "We have been working closely with the volunteers for a long time. The volunteers make an important contribution for everyone in the region, and we want to support them in this," emphasises Ina Weller, company spokesperson for Stadtwerke Gießen.
The "Fire brigade of the future" competition is part of this and always promotes outstanding ideas. In the last round, the Hungen-Obbornhofen volunteer fire brigade took first place with the project "2013 - the year of preventive fire protection". It was followed by the Reiskirchen volunteer fire brigade, which provided its members with comprehensive further training on the "Firefighter Paramedic" pilot course. Third place was shared by the Lollar-Salzböden, Heuchelheim and Linden volunteer fire brigades.
No strict requirements for projects
"We are once again calling on volunteer fire services to apply for the Innovation Award. There are no strict limits to their creativity," explains Michael Weber, Chairman of the district fire brigade association.
However, the project should illustrate how the volunteers are equipping themselves for future tasks and how they educate people about their work and fire safety.
The application phase runs until 30 April. SWG provides information about the competition, participation and the process on its website at www.stadtwerke-giessen.de/innovationspreis. Volunteer fire brigades can also find all the application documents they need to submit to SWG here. They then have from mid-May to 30 September to implement their project proposal. At the end of the year, the jury, which includes District Administrator Anita Schneider, Grünberg Mayor Frank Ide, District Fire Inspector Mario Binsch, Head of the Professional Fire Brigade Martina Berger, Chairman of the District Fire Brigade Association Michael Weber, radio reporter Constanze Schleenbecker-Büttner, editors Steffen Hanak and Jochen Lamberts as well as Ina Weller and Stephanie Orlik from Stadtwerke Gießen, will select the winners. "Over the past three years, the decision was not easy for us due to the large number of outstanding ideas. In 2014, we are sure to have another neck-and-neck race on our hands," assures the SWG company spokesperson.
13.01.2014