Dear friends and supporters,

2013 was a very turbu­lent year for @fire. We were on flood relief in Lüchow-Dannen­berg; helped our friends in Vila Real cope with a bad forest fire season; and were in the Philip­pines after the typhoon to scout and coor­di­nate relief efforts. All these missions had to be prepared and followed up. Dona­tions received were accounted for and distrib­uted; our own expenses were paid and, last but not least, our own members and their rela­tives were looked after. - And every­thing is 100% voluntary!

Although the missions put a lot of strain on us, they also showed that our organ­i­sa­tion is power­ful enough to act effec­tively. Our proven network of part­ners and support­ers is also effi­cient and reli­able, so that we are prepared for the next chal­lenges. Please continue to support us so that we have a suffi­cient finan­cial foundation.

The devel­op­ment of the number of members and the creation of new @fire teams in Switzer­land and South Tyrol is also very pleas­ing. This brings us a little closer to our goal of becom­ing an inter­na­tional organ­i­sa­tion. And through our member­ship in the Asso­ci­a­tion for the Promo­tion of Fire Protec­tion (vfdb), we hope to be able to further expand our network and share the expe­ri­ence we have gained on missions abroad with other firefighters.

In line with our motto “Fire­fight­ers help world­wide”, we will thus be able to help those affected even faster and more effec­tively in the event of disas­ters all over the world.