The flight assistants hunkered down and ran across the meadow directly under the police helicopter. The rotors were turning meekly, communication was only possible by hand signal or via headphones and radio, it was simply too loud. A few professional movements and the helicopter took off again. The attached box swung on the long rope.
This scenario was repeated over and over again on the meadow above the Wegfurt sports center. It was this year’s flight assistance of the Bischofsheim fire brigade with the police helicopter squadron from Roth. The chief of operations was the commander of the Bischofsheim fire brigade Christian Hoenen.
Cargo workers and fire fighters work together
Actually it should have been the joint exercise of the flight assistant groups of the fire brigades Bischofsheim and Aschaffenburg. However, due to Corona, joint exercise was waived, the Bischofsheimers practiced alone this year. Not only the trained flight assistants from the Bischofsheim fire brigade were involved in this exercise, but also ground staff from the Wegfurt and Frankenheim fire brigades.
As Hoenen explained, he deliberately chose a combination of flight assistants and ground rescue workers in order to give the fire brigades, who have no experience of flight operations, the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the subject. It was assumed that there was a major forest fire at Kreuzberg, which was fought both from the air and from the ground. With regard to the ground crew, a distinction was made between fire fighters who were deployed to fight fires and between cargo assistants who worked together with flight assistants under the helicopter.
Duck posture stabilizes the body
Cargo assistants were only allowed to practice together with the flight assistants. Here, emergency services from the Frankenheim and Wegfurt fire departments took turns to gain initial experience.
Crouch and run fast, summarized Janina Mai. When I ran to the helicopter for the first time, I was blown away. The crouched position helps to stabilize the body. We can’t go until we get the okay from the technician in the helicopter, she explained. At the hand signal, the three emergency services ran off. This time there were different possibilities of using a helicopter. We hung and unhooked different loads, explained Hoenen. The combination with the police helicopter squadron is ideal, because they also need a certain number of hours of exercise.
Ten flight assistants at the Bischofsheimer Wehr
The Bischofsheim fire department has ten flight assistants who completed their training at the fire department school in Wrzburg. There are currently 17 fire brigade locations in Bavaria that can be made available by trained flight assistants. One of them is Bischofsheim, the only one in the Rhn-Grabfeld district, the next are Wrzburg and Aschaffenburg.
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The Bischofsheimer Wehr has had an external load container since 1998 that could hold 5000 liters of water. However, this container was designed so that it could only be transported by a Bundeswehr helicopter. Today he is for practice purposes in the fire brigade school Wrzburg. Since 2017, the Bischofsheimer Wehr has had two smaller external load containers, each with a capacity of 900 liters, which can be brought to the deployment sites with any helicopter.
Direct and indirect fire fighting
As Hoenen explained, fighting a forest or moor fire is always a combination of ground and flight operations. Ground forces that extinguish in the root and trunk area and the flight mission to fight the fire in the treetops from above.
In flight operations, there are two types of fire fighting, direct and indirect. With the direct, the transported water is drained from the air over the seat of the fire, like rain, so to speak. In the indirect case, the helicopter transports water to a water container and supplies the fire brigade on site with extinguishing water.
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Forest fires are becoming an increasingly important issue
But not only the transport of fire water but also of various loads such as a pump and hoses was on the agenda for the exercise. It was about transporting material quickly from A to B. In difficult terrain, it often takes too long to get there.
At the end of the day, Hoenen was satisfied with the flight assistance. In times of climate change it is important to deal with the topic of forest fires. The risk of forest fires also increases in the Rhn. I also have two moors, the Black and the Red Moor, which continue to dry out. The risk of fire increases here too and the area is not accessible for vehicles.
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Wegfurt
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Marion Eckert
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Fire fighting
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Emergency services
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Operations Manager
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Fire brigades
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Firefighters
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helicopter
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Moorbrnde
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pump
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Forest and wooded areas
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Forest fires
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