Always ready for action: 16 years of the university fire brigade

When the alarm goes off, the seven firefighters currently studying at Hochschule Bonn-Rein-Sieg only have a few minutes to be ready for action. They are part of the Sankt Augustin volunteer fire brigade's so-called daily alarm. This means that at a higher alert level, the students leave their seminars and lectures, because at this alert level the aim is to save lives or support the local units in the event of fires with increased personnel requirements.

The students run to the specially equipped changing room in the main building on the Sankt Augustin campus. Here, everyone has their own locker in which to hang their equipment. In no time at all, the comrades jump into their kit and a moment later into the crew van.

Always with them is Marcus Faak. He is an employee of the university, but above all he has been involved with the volunteer fire brigade in Sankt Augustin/Mülldorf for 38 years. As a senior fire inspector and unit leader, he is in charge of operations. "So I wear the hat during operations. However, our students are not called out to minor emergencies such as an oil slick on the road or a cat in a tree - the units that are alerted do that themselves. Everyday university life clearly takes precedence." But on an August day two years ago, the university's manpower was even in demand in neighbouring Siegburg: an embankment fire in the Brückberg district on the Frankfurt/Cologne ICE line threatened to spread to several houses at once. "I particularly remember a lorry fire on the A3," says Marcus Faak. "It was carrying toast and burned for hours. We were also on site with the student firefighters."

Around 16 years ago, firefighter Faak set up the university fire brigade in consultation with the then university chancellor Hans Stender. The city of Sankt Augustin had approached the university because the availability of firefighters was dwindling, especially during the day, as they were no longer working on site. Faak launched a survey at the university and immediately got a handful of volunteers together. The team is currently seven strong. At peak times, there were 21, but after an academic degree, the number is automatically reduced. Nevertheless, Faak has no worries about recruiting. "Word gets around. The members of the voluntary university fire brigade already belong to the fire brigade in their home community. And as soon as they discover our armoured personnel carrier on the university campus, they are interested in getting involved here at the university too."

The coronavirus situation is also limiting the university fire brigade: The students are not at the university, but at home in the online semester, far away from their emergency equipment in the university locker and therefore cannot be called out when the daily alarm is triggered. Exercise duties are also cancelled due to the coronavirus. Yet it is immensely important to be fit and ready for action. The Sankt Augustin fire service also offers students the opportunity to do this. For example, the thermal acclimatisation facility for breathing apparatus wearers or participation in training courses and exercise days at the NRW Fire Service Institute in Münster, the state's fire service school.

The university fire service, like the entire six units of the Sankt Augustin volunteer fire service, is funded by the city. "The equipment in our emergency vehicles has been completely modernised in recent years and is state-of-the-art," says Chief Fire Inspector Marcus Faak. This is the best motivation for the city's firefighters. And it is much cheaper for the city than a professional fire brigade, he adds.

The alarm is raised in the municipality around 600 times a year. The fire brigade from Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg assists with up to 20 call-outs. Fortunately, apart from a small rubbish container fire, there have not yet been any serious incidents on campus.

Text: Esther Hummel