Our history

Foun­da­tion @fire

After the devas­tat­ing forest fires in Europe, a hand­ful of dedi­cated fire­fight­ers wondered how, despite the federal struc­tures in Germany, they could manage to help abroad as a German fire depart­ment. The birth of @fire.

1. crown fire

@fire orga­nizes the first special­ist event on the topic of “vege­ta­tion fires” in Germany, the special­ist sympo­sium “Wipfelfeuer”, in Frank­furt am Main for German fire departments.

INSARAG Recog­ni­tion

Offi­cial recog­ni­tion as an inter­na­tional rescue team in the UN sub-orga­ni­za­tion INSARAG on the recom­men­da­tion of the Ministry of the Inte­rior of the Federal Repub­lic of Germany

Foun­da­tion @fire Switzerland

Foun­da­tion of the subsidiary orga­ni­za­tion “@fire Switzer­land” as a legally inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion in Switzerland.

Work­ing Group “USAR Light” of the UN

@fire is included in the UN INSARAG work­ing group to create the new clas­si­fi­ca­tion stan­dard “Inter­na­tional USAR Light”.

Dona­tion certificate

Trans­parency and secu­rity in handling dona­tions: @fire receives the “tested trans­parency” dona­tion certifi­cate from the German Dona­tions Council.

Appoint­ment to the AK Forest Fire

@fire becomes a member of the forest fire work­ing group of the German Fire Brigades Association.

Part­ner­ship Magirus

Offi­cial part­ner­ship with vehi­cle and tech­nol­ogy manu­fac­turer Magirus to develop new Vege­ta­tions­brand­bekämp­fung tech­nol­ogy and tactics.

UN clas­si­fi­ca­tion

@fire was the first rescue team in the world to go through the INSARAG Exter­nal Clas­sif­caion (IEC) to become a Light USAR Team.

Thus @fire provides one of only three German clas­si­fied search and rescue teams for inter­na­tional missions.

20 years @fire

In 2022, @fire can look back on a history of more than 20 years - from the found­ing idea to a recog­nised and inter­na­tion­ally active aid organisation.