Frequently Asked Ques­tions (FAQ)

The basic require­ment for a member­ship with @fire is first the completed 18 years of age, the
mental and phys­i­cal apti­tude as well as the will­ing­ness to actively partic­i­pate in the association.
Entry-level qual­i­fi­ca­tions from fire­fight­ing, emer­gency medical services or forestry are desirable
but not manda­tory. Regard­less of qual­i­fi­ca­tion, each member basi­cally completes the same train­ing levels. 

Depend­ing on the place of resi­dence of the inter­ested party
the assign­ment to a regional team takes place. The admis­sion process is then handled by the regional team leaders.

@fire expects active coop­er­a­tion from its members. For a club like @fire to even be in the
If a company is to be able to go into action, it needs to be care­fully planned and prepared. But also
Public rela­tions and fundrais­ing are a major field of activ­ity within the asso­ci­a­tion. @fire receives no public fund­ing and lives off dona­tions. That is why it is also the task of every
Member to look for revenue in the form of dona­tions. Only then @fire can act. In all these areas, the members are asked to actively contribute. 

Again and again we are asked “Where does all this take place?”. @fire is a network, there is no
central train­ing center or simi­lar. The members come from all over Germany, from
Austria, South Tyrol and Switzer­land. It is not atyp­i­cal several times a year to travel a few kilo­me­ters to the
team service or even travel more than 200 kilo­me­ters for a week­end train­ing course. For this
a high will­ing­ness to travel and mobil­ity is required. Often help carpool­ing around the cost
to keep low. 

“@fire - Inter­na­tionaler Katas­tro­phen­schutz Deutsch­land e.V.” - who wants to be inter­na­tion­ally active comes
around the language English can not be avoided. Inter­na­tional guide­lines and train­ing docu­ments are avail­able on
English writ­ten and part of the WFF and USAR train­ing. Commu­ni­ca­tion on an international
Parquet carries the languages English and/or French. You do not have to speak perfect English to
to work for @fire. But it is help­ful to under­stand the language. At the begin­ning is enough normal
School English.

@fire is a non-profit asso­ci­a­tion and is financed exclu­sively through dona­tions and
Member­ship fees. No expenses for travel to train­ings, courses or other @fire events will be covered.

In prin­ci­ple, members sacri­fice their time for train­ing courses and missions.
free time or their vaca­tion. Since we are not affil­i­ated with the National Disas­ter Manage­ment Agency, we will
no down­time payments for oper­a­tions are assumed. For foreign assign­ments, the asso­ci­a­tion forms a
Deploy­ment reserve. Here, members do not incur any costs for flights, accom­mo­da­tion, meals or the like.

The annual member­ship fee is currently 80€. There is a discount for students.

For the
Procure­ment of personal protec­tive equip­ment and other equip­ment incurs addi­tional costs.

@fire is currently finan­cially unable to provide its members with full personal protec­tive equip­ment (PPE). There are addi­tional costs for the members here. To partic­i­pate in an oper­a­tion it is neces­sary to have the complete @fire protec­tive cloth­ing. This includes a safety helmet with goggles, a jacket and trousers as well as gloves. When it comes to footwear, most members fall back on their fire depart­men­t’s personal duty footwear. Here you can wear the common models of lace-up boots. Addi­tional polo shirts, T-shirts, sweaters, fleece jack­ets and pants can be purchased as duty attire. In addi­tion, the members need for train­ing courses, exer­cises but of course also for an inter­na­tional mission own eating uten­sils, sleep­ing bag, sleep­ing mat, back­pack, pack bag, helmet and flash­light, etc.. The costs depend then strongly on what is already avail­able. For the @fire PSA you should plan about 300€.

It is not neces­sary to dress in full PPE right from the start. For members coming from the fire depart­ment, there is the possi­bil­ity to use exist­ing PPE of the munic­i­pal fire depart­ment at the begin­ning during exer­cises and train­ing courses. In addi­tion, for exam­ple, helmets can be rented. Detailed infor­ma­tion on PPE and other equip­ment will be a regu­lar topic at train­ing courses.