Fire Engines Photos

With a population of 240,000 - about the same as Newcastle - this city has a central fire station staffed by 132 full time paid firefighters working a 42 hour week in a modified three shift system and close to 475 additional unpaid operational volunteers always on call and assigned to 18 more stations distributed across the city. Together they respond to around 2800 incidents a year. This pattern, with one very large central full time station and numerous on call volunteer stations is very typical of fire protection in larger towns and cities in Germany. Usually the full time crews respond to around 80% of calls while the volunteers handle the rest. As well as being first in at incidents in outlying areas, the volunteers also participate in second and higher alarms and also provide coverage when the full time crews are tied up at incidents.

Added by Rob Johnson on 16 December 2025.

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