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Ready for emergencies day and night: The fire brigades are called out every hour. Firefighting operations are, however, mandatory and are free of charge. © IMAGO/Julien Becker
In some cases, every kilometer is haggled over. Fire departments are increasingly having to deal with insurance bureaucracy.
Erding – After a traffic accident, there is a slick of oil on the road. The fire department needs two bags of oil absorbent to remove the oil slick. Nine men and one vehicle are deployed. The insurance company pays the costs. The head of operations writes an incident report, and the municipality issues an invoice. “But it is now standard practice for insurance companies to send back an objection,” explains Sebastian Weinzierl, 2nd Commander of the Moosinning Fire Department.
Everything is being questioned: the number of kilometers driven, the number of personnel and the time spent by the emergency services. The operations managers write a statement, the insurance companies commission an expert report. “Then they usually admit something, for example they say: ‘OK, we’ll pay for the staff hours, but not the kilometers,'” says the 37-year-old. “And so it goes back and forth, position by position.” A huge additional workload for the volunteers. “Shameful,” says Christian Nagler, a local councilor in Moosinning. “Bureaucracy is increasing at all ends and the commanders are the ones who suffer.”
Not all operations are billable
The Moosinning fire brigade is not the only one that has to deal with insurance: “It is becoming more and more common for commanders to have to explain past operations,” confirms Günter Plieninger, chairman of the Pastetten fire brigade, “whether, for example, the number of personnel or equipment deployed was necessary.”
In Isen, too, objections have been raised more frequently in recent years, says managing director Christine Pettinger. “You get the feeling that the insurance companies are simply trying things out and hoping to find inconsistencies.” It is not uncommon for the municipality to receive settlement offers. “However, our demands are justified and anchored in law.”
Only a small part of the costs are billed anyway; the legal framework for calculation is very narrow. In addition, not all operations are billable. Rescuing people or classic fire operations are among the mandatory tasks of the fire service and are therefore free of charge.
Ultimately, however, every municipality has objections to cost notices, says Florian Pleiner. The most common reason for this is the amount. “I am currently not aware of any clear ruling on this contradictory issue,” says the district fire chief, “which could serve as a model for further action.”
Matthias Belmer, commander of the Forstern fire department, also reports that requests for payment are repeatedly ignored or legal action is taken against them. “There have also been lengthy legal disputes between the municipality and the debtor in this regard,” says Belmer.
In Forstern, there is now a cost-assumption form for chargeable operations, which is signed on site by the person responsible. Only then does the fire brigade take action. In addition, the cost regulations were revised and adjusted by the administration this year and re-approved by the municipal council.
No more deployment without photo evidence
The same is true in Moosinning: the local council there recently approved a change to the cost regulations. “Actually, you don’t need to regulate flat rates and deployment costs in the regulations,” explains Weinzierl, “because they are already regulated by law. But this has now been added again to make the costs transparent.”
The really annoying thing is the effort involved. “We instructed our group leaders to take photos during operations so that we have evidence later.” That is not their job, “but during operations decisions have to be made within seconds, and then you can justify them in ping pong for half a year.”
A very special case has been keeping the people of Moosinning busy for a year and a half now: In December 2022, the fire brigade was called to an accident on the airport bypass. “There was a lot of snow, a truck slipped off the road,” says Weinzierl. Normally, the road maintenance department takes over the road closure during longer operations. Because of the snow chaos, however, everyone was on duty, so the fire brigade took over the road closure.
Decision in October
On the way back, not all exits were passable due to the heavy snowfall – the Moosinning residents had to skip the correct exit and could only take the next one. “That adds up to more kilometers. And this discussion – about the duration of the operation, the kilometers, the measures – has been going on for a year and a half now,” said the 37-year-old. The whole thing will go to court in October.
“It’s kind of sad that we have to spend our time on something like this these days,” laments the volunteer. Councillor Nagler is more explicit: “It’s a mess,” he says. “Hats off to everyone who still does the job.”
