Six fire­fight­ing vehi­cles set off from the Inter­schutz trade fair in Hanover on Thurs­day for Ukraine. Lower Saxony’s Inte­rior Minis­ter Boris Pisto­rius saw off the convoy, which reached the Polish-Ukrain­ian border at the week­end. There, the urgently needed emer­gency vehi­cles were handed over to the fire­fight­ers from the Kyiv and Cher­nobyl regions.

The fire-fight­ing vehi­cles - one fire-fight­ing group vehi­cle (LF) 8, three LF 8/6, one tank fire-fight­ing vehi­cle (TLF) 16/25 and one TLF 24/50 - are former fire-fight­ing vehi­cles of the fire depart­ments Bohmte (NI), Ochtrup (NRW), Mors­bach (NRW), Strauben­hardt (BW), Straub­ing (BY) and Ster­nen­fels (NRW). They were donated and trans­ferred by the respec­tive munic­i­pal­i­ties and a private indi­vid­ual to support the fire­fight­ers on site in their non-stop and life-threat­en­ing mission. “We would like to thank all our donors and support­ers,” said team leader Patrick Kamin­sky. “The vehi­cles are getting to where they are desper­ately needed.” Even though one vehi­cle broke down and could be stored at a Polish fire depart­ment for the time being. “This again showed the cohe­sive­ness of the world­wide fire­fight­ing commu­nity,” Kamin­sky said.

More than 1,300 fire engines have been destroyed since the begin­ning of the war in Ukraine. Around 600 vehi­cles have already been donated by fire depart­ments and orga­ni­za­tions. Since the week­end, there are six more vehi­cles. This is the fourth vehi­cle trans­port that @fire is orga­niz­ing to Ukraine together with the #WeAre­Al­lUkraini­ans and Alliance4Ukraine initia­tives. This brings the total number of convicted vehi­cles to 20.

Since the begin­ning of the war, the inter­na­tional aid orga­ni­za­tion @fire has been provid­ing human­i­tar­ian aid in vari­ous ways. Since then, the @fire staff has been work­ing non-stop to moni­tor the situ­a­tion, coor­di­nate offers of help and dona­tions in kind, and exchange infor­ma­tion with numer­ous part­ners. Together with the #WeAre­Al­lUkraini­ans and Alliance4Ukraine initia­tives, twenty fire and rescue vehi­cles have already been trans­ferred to the Ukrain­ian capi­tal Kyiv and the Cher­nobyl region. In a joint relief oper­a­tion with Osteu­ropahilfe, Brand­schutztech­nik Müller, Jola Rent and Heavy Rescue Germany, @fire was able to bring 40 tons of fire­fight­ing equip­ment to Ukraine. 120 pallets of protec­tive cloth­ing, helmets, boots, gener­a­tors, pumps, hoses, rescue equip­ment, tents, lift­ing bags, cut-off grinders and personal dosime­ters were donated by indi­vid­u­als, fire depart­ments and compa­nies. A three-person assess­ment team, in collab­o­ra­tion with the Björn Steiger Foun­da­tion, the Insti­tute for Euro­pean Affairs (INEA), Veri­tas Ambu­lance and local author­i­ties, spent seven days assess­ing human­i­tar­ian needs in the Polish border town of Chelm. In the Black Forest National Park and in Wegberg near Mönchenglad­bach, support was provided for the construc­tion of refugee accommodation.

Offers of dona­tions of equip­ment and fire and rescue vehi­cles can be sent by e-mail to spenden-​ukraine@​at-​fire.​de. The work of @fire can also be supported finan­cially via the Better­place dona­tion plat­form.

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