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.