Volunteer fire brigades from the region can now apply to Stadtwerke Gießen for the "Fire Brigade of the Future 2011" award. The prerequisite for this: The application documents for the Stadtwerke Gießen innovation award for fire brigades in Central Hessen must be received by SWG by the deadline of 30 April at the latest. An expert from the Giessen District Fire Brigade Association will then decide on the inclusion of the individual projects in the competition. Participating fire brigades then have until 31 October to show how they believe the future of the fire service should look in practice by implementing their project. There are cash prizes of 1,500, 1,000 and 500 euros for the three best projects. A jury consisting of representatives from the press, the fire services and Giessen's public utility company will decide who has come up with the best vision for the future. Applications and background information on the competition can be found from today on the Internet at www.stadtwerke-giessen.de/innovationspreis. Further information can also be obtained from the Giessen District Fire Brigade Association.
Expanding co-operation
With the fire brigade competition for the Giessen Municipal Utilities Innovation Award, which was first organised in 2011, SWG aims to further expand its support for voluntary fire brigades and its partnership with the district fire brigade association. The prize is also intended to provide incentives and impetus for sustainable solutions in firefighting and other tasks of modern fire brigades. The project was launched on 20 December last year by SWG together with the mayor of Staufenberg and chairman of the district fire brigade association Horst Münch and district fire inspector Mario Binsch. All sides agreed that it was important to strengthen the youth work of the fire brigades today in order to be able to adapt to the increasing demands of the future. Among other things, this means that in future the voluntary work of private individuals, public commitment and the support of local companies such as SWG must be even more mutually supportive. In the case of Stadtwerke, however, this applies all the more as there have always been many points of contact between the utility company and the fire brigades in practice and must continue to be.