The municipalities of Flörsbachtal, Sinntal, Hammersbach and Schlüchtern want to strengthen their cooperation in firefighting. They have now signed an agreement for this.

Main-Kinzig district – The four municipalities, with the Main-Kinzig district as the sponsor, form the supra-local so-called forest fire train. Four new vehicles for the forest fire train will improve safety throughout the coming years Main-Kinzig district increase significantly. A public law agreement was signed at a joint meeting in Flörsbachtal-Kempfenbrunn.

Kinzigtal municipalities strengthen cooperation in forest fire protection

The agreement also regulates cooperation in regional fire protection and paves the way for its modernization. The future vehicles will not only be available for regional use in forest and vegetation fires, but will also significantly strengthen local fire protection in the communities involved.

After several decades and numerous, sometimes challenging operations, the previous vehicles have completed their service and have “pasted their peak,” according to a statement from the Main-Kinzig district. In the agreement, the municipalities stipulate that they will proceed jointly in tendering, awarding, acquiring and stationing, share the costs and carry out the associated tasks in a coordinated manner.

“Municipalities are stronger when they come together,” emphasized District Administrator Thorsten Stolz at the signing. The value of cooperation is immediately apparent in the disaster control units and supra-regional trains – whenever they are needed and deployed as a lower disaster control authority or in regional fire protection. The modernization of the forest fire train is therefore “an important milestone for the safety of people in the entire Main-Kinzig district”.

Four new firefighting vehicles are to be purchased

The event location in the Flörsbachtal, surrounded by dense Spessart forest, was deliberately chosen with the past in mind. Five years ago, more than 100 women and men from the district's fire departments carried out a large forest fire drill there. The forest fire platoon – which also includes emergency services from Maintal and Bad Soden-Salmünster – was already involved back then and proved itself in the demanding training scenario in the forest.

District fire inspector Markus Busanni used the event to remind people of these and other operations and to point out the increasing challenges. “The climatic changes present the fire departments in the city and districts with major challenges,” he explained. Complex scenarios of forest and vegetation fires are practiced several times a year. As the district reports, it subsidizes the purchase of the new vehicles with around 60 percent of the cost per vehicle.

The background to the agreement is the ever-increasing risk of forest fires, especially in longer dry periods and hot summers. If there is no rain for a long period of time and the sun dries out the vegetation, the risk of forest and vegetation fires increases significantly. Then – as operational practice shows – the forest fire squad from the Main-Kinzig district is often called upon, whose forces are deployed, sometimes for days and several times, to contain and extinguish fires in nature.