More than 250 fire and rescue vehi­cles and 100 fire stations have been destroyed in Ukraine since the war began. Never­the­less, fire­fight­ers are work­ing non-stop to treat the wounded and put out fires. The aid orga­ni­za­tion @fire has brought urgently needed dona­tions of vehi­cles and equip­ment to the capi­tal Kyiv. Kyiv’s mayor Dr. Vitali Klitschko expresses his grat­i­tude for this impor­tant support.

In a first aid convoy, in coop­er­a­tion with the #WeAre­Al­lUkraini­ans initia­tive of Dr. Wladimir Klitschko and Tatjana Kiel, the Alliance4Ukraine as well as other part­ners and spon­sors, a fire engine 16/25 of the Hude fire depart­ment, a fire engine 8 of the Neckargemünd fire depart­ment, a turntable ladder with basket of the Pfar­rkirchen fire depart­ment as well as mate­r­ial dona­tions of the Nossen fire depart­ment at the Polish-Ukrain­ian border were handed over to repre­sen­ta­tives of the city of Kyiv and the Ukrain­ian rescue forces. In a video message, Kyiv Mayor Dr. Vitali Klitschko person­ally thanked “all the munic­i­pal­i­ties that donated fire trucks to us. These vehi­cles save the lives of our citi­zens. This support is very impor­tant. It allows us to protect our city and our country.”

Further aid convoys for the trans­fer of fire and rescue vehi­cles and urgently needed equip­ment are already being planned. The need for equip­ment and vehi­cles for tech­ni­cal assis­tance, fire­fight­ing and medical care remains high. In the capi­tal Kyiv, there is a partic­u­lar need for (large) tanker fire-fight­ing vehi­cles and aerial rescue vehi­cles. Fight­ing fires at height and extin­guish­ing burn­ing fuel is a partic­u­lar chal­lenge there.

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. In a joint relief oper­a­tion with Osteu­ropahilfe, Brand­schutztech­nik Müller, Jola Rent and Heavy Rescue Germany, @fire has already been 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, personal dosime­ters and five complete fire trucks 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.

Dona­tion offers of equip­ment and fire and rescue vehi­cles can be emailed to spenden-​ukraine@​at-​fire.​de. The work of @fire can also be supported finan­cially via the Better­place dona­tion plat­form.

The initia­tive #WeAre­Al­lUkraini­ans was launched by Dr. Vladimir Klitschko and Tatyana Kiel, CEO of Klitschko Ventures, to develop scal­able solu­tions and processes for the most press­ing needs as quickly as possi­ble, which he passes on to Tatyana Kiel directly from Kyiv. Over 2,000 tons of goods have reached Kyiv in the first 10 days - with the support of dona­tions of goods from large compa­nies and logis­tics part­ner Deutsche Bahn, as well as the coor­di­na­tors of #WeAre­Al­lUkraini­ans on the Ukrain­ian side. Together with the aid orga­ni­za­tion @fire - Inter­na­tionaler Katas­tro­phen­schutz Deutsch­land e.V., #WeAre­Al­lUkraini­ans is work­ing to procure fire and rescue vehi­cles that are urgently needed in Ukraine.

The Alliance4Ukraine is a coor­di­nat­ing alliance of civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions, foun­da­tions, state insti­tu­tions and compa­nies. The goal is to create an ecosys­tem of inter­lock­ing solu­tions to the needs of people on the run. The support­ing orga­ni­za­tions from Alliance4Ukraine want to strengthen exist­ing - primar­ily civil soci­ety - struc­tures in Germany, which in partic­u­lar can enable or facil­i­tate the recep­tion of people on the run. Alliance4Ukraine is under the joint patron­age of the Federal Minis­ter of the Inte­rior and Home Affairs, Nancy Faeser, and the Federal Govern­ment Commis­sioner for Migra­tion, Inte­gra­tion and Refugees, Reem Alabali-Radovan.

The non-profit aid orga­ni­za­tion @fire - Inter­na­tionaler Katas­tro­phen­schutz Deutsch­land e. V. has been provid­ing rapid emer­gency aid world­wide follow­ing devas­tat­ing natural disas­ters since 2002. Respon­ders are specially trained in wild­land fire­fight­ing (WFF) and search and rescue of buried victims after earth­quakes (USAR). All of the approx­i­mately 400 members are involved in national and inter­na­tional disas­ter relief on a volun­tary and unpaid basis. The aid orga­ni­za­tion was clas­si­fied as the world’s first Light USAR Team by the United Nations Inter­na­tional Search and Rescue Advi­sory Group (INSARAG) in 2021 and oper­ates accord­ing to inter­na­tional stan­dards. Fund­ing for oper­a­tions, train­ing, and equip­ment is primar­ily donor-funded.

Dona­tion account 40 50 60
Bank für Sozial­wirtschaft, sort code 370 205 00
IBAN: DE17 3702 0500 000113 8800 / BIC: BFSWDE33XXX

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