Severe storms, floods, fire disasters, pandemics: professional helpers cannot always be on hand immediately during major events.
A cooperation agreement between the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (BBK), the German Fire Brigade Association (DFV), and the Association for the Promotion of German Fire Protection (vfdb) is intended to help promote self-protection skills among the population even more.
BBK President Ralph Tiesler, DFV President Karl-Heinz Banse, and vfdb President Dirk Aschenbrenner signed the agreement.
self-protection and self-help skills
Among other things, it stipulates that skills in self-protection and self-help will increasingly be taught in the future as part of fire safety education, for example in schools and companies. The three institutions have long been committed to ensuring that private emergency preparedness and the knowledge of how to act correctly in emergencies receive more attention as important building blocks for increasing the ability of society as a whole to protect itself (resilience).
The first joint project work after the agreement has been signed will occur as part of the Fire Protection Education and Awareness Forum (BEBA) on November 11th and 12th in Saarbrücken.
Joint work on educational offerings
The themes of self-protection and self-help form the basis of the cooperation throughout
The core points of the agreed cooperation are regular professional exchange, the joint development of information and educational offers, and the sharing of resources in disseminating these offers among the population.
The themes of self-protection and self-help form the basis of the cooperation throughout. The cooperation agreement institutionalizes the previous successful collaboration and creates the foundation for future joint projects.
sustainable communication
BBK President - Ralph Tiesler emphasizes, “We are pleased to have strong partners in the DFV and the vfdb who share our goal of promoting and strengthening people’s resilience and ability to help themselves. Citizens need to know how to protect themselves in crises such as floods or power outages."
Ralph Tiesler adds, "This requires broad-based, permanent, and sustainable communication with people. As BBK, we bring our expertise and specialist knowledge about self-protection and self-help options and how to communicate them to the cooperation.”
fire safety education
DFV President - Karl-Heinz Banse explains, “We have a nationwide network: people in 23,000 fire departments are active in fire safety education and fire safety education for children, young people, and adults."
Karl-Heinz Banse continues, "Through this unique commitment, we have been successfully training the correct behavior in the event of a fire for decades. Now we can also specifically convey what to do in the event of a storm or how to prepare for floods. All of this is only possible thanks to the countless fire brigade members, who primarily work voluntarily to ensure people’s safety and health!”
Importance of self-help in emergency
vfdb President - Dirk Aschenbrenner was satisfied with the close cooperation agreed upon. He said, “Last but not least, the heavy rain disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia has shown how important quick self-help is in an emergency.”
Dirk Aschenbrenner adds, “But this also applies to smaller emergencies in everyday life. It is not for nothing that our emergency services are overloaded with unnecessary operations. You can learn to help yourself - we can help with our network of experts!"
