“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
dear members,
2017 was a year of omens for us. Many of us perceive that the number and frequency of natural disasters is increasing. Heavy rainfall with flooding, droughts with forest fires, storm events with wind breakage: it happens more often and it happens especially in places where people thought they were safe from it. We are not entirely alone in this assessment; the major reinsurers also see this trend confirmed - not only internationally, but also and especially in our country.
In addition to a well-equipped emergency response team on the ground, specialists who are prepared for the special dangers and requirements of these events are also needed to deal with these damage situations. Here we see @fire as a supporter of the emergency response authority in the preparation of operations in the form of training and advice and as a supplement to the existing components by specialists.
Therefore, we had a lot to do in 2017: We had a team on call for the forest fires in Chile, we were present in several countries during the fires in the Mediterranean region, we had a great “Wipfelfeuer” in Baden-Württemberg and were able to participate in an international USAR exercise in Switzerland. These are all small building blocks on the way to an effective operational organisation.
It was also particularly important for us to obtain the “tested transparency” donation certificate from the German Donations Council and to fulfil the associated criteria. This way, they can be completely sure that their donation will also be used for the intended purpose and effectively, if they want to support our goal “Firefighters help worldwide” through donations or a sustaining membership.