75 years of Salzburg professional fire brigade – salzburg.ORF.at
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In Austria, there are professional fire brigades in only six cities, one of them in Salzburg. It is celebrating its 75th anniversary today. More than 180,000 operations had to be managed and it was shown that not a single major operation can be managed without the support of the voluntary fire brigades.
At the locations of the professional fire brigade in Salzburg-Schallmoos and in the district of Maxglan, a total of 31 men from the professional fire brigade are on standby in 24-hour shifts. During this time they practice regularly. Two-thirds of their missions are technical assistance and one-third involve fires.
Volunteer fire brigades are also needed for large-scale operations
In large-scale operations, the professional fire brigade has always been dependent on the support of the volunteer fire brigades. “Of course, for large-scale operations such as the full fire at the Franzenbauer on the Gaisberg in 2019, we were able to fall back on all four fire engines in the city of Salzburg. Altogether, that was a large contingent,” says the fire director of the Salzburg professional fire brigade, Reinhold Ortler.
Gas bottle explosion: comrades lost their lives
To mark the anniversary, the author and former director of the Salzburg Museum, Erich Marx, wrote a book about the Salzburg professional fire brigade. It will be presented on Wednesday evenings in the House of City History. Marx looks back on the 180,000 exciting and often dangerous cases that often ended happily.
In 1986, however, the firefighters responded to an extremely demanding mission: Gas cylinders exploded on a company site in Salzburg-Taxham, killing two firefighters. This deployment has changed many things in the fire service. “The tragic accident with two dead firefighters has led to a complete rethink in Europe and a change in methodology,” says Erich Marx, author of the book and former director of the Salzburg Museum.
75 years of the Salzburg professional fire brigade
“Firefighters are teamwork”
The fire in the Generali-Hof in 1997 on Mirabellplatz was also extremely dangerous, the fire-fighting operation at Arenberg Castle in 2009 and the salvage of the sunken Amadeus during the Salzach flood in 2002 were very difficult needed for the Rupertinum 2003 by order of the city of Einhausen, the Salzburg professional fire brigade also made international headlines. This mission is also part of the 75-year history in the book about the Salzburg professional fire brigade.
Professional fire brigade is looking for staff
The professional fire brigade is currently looking for five men with 136 positions. “The nice thing about this job is that each assignment is unique and doesn’t happen twice. For us, teamwork is paramount, alone you are nothing, together we are everything,” Brand Director Ortler praises his team.
Not a single woman there
After three quarters of a century in service, there is still not a single firefighter in the Salzburg professional fire brigade.