Tanja Gumbrecht confidently drives the fire engine from the fire station to the next intersection in the town center. Christine Stumpf puts the warning sign at the roadside. Six members of the Buch fire department ladies came to the exercise today: "Fire of an outbuilding". They work hand in hand. They practice.
"The emergency is something else again", says Christine Stumpf. A few weeks ago, it happened for the first time: A car caught fire in Gremsdorf in the morning. "You hear the siren, take a quick look around, and think: There’s nothing more important than the mission at the moment. Now you are challenged." She quickly made her way to the fire station that morning. "The car was already almost full, just one place was free for me, and I got in."
She was not alone in her excitement, she remembers. "The other firefighters in the vehicle were also excited, you could feel that. But certainly not as much as me." The men in the car talked to Christine during the short drive: "We’ll tell you what to do." It was very reassuring for her "to know that you’re not alone".
"Coupling the suction line!" Thomas Ruhmann is the commander of the Buch fire department. He leads the women’s group – which consists of eleven members – in the exercise. The ladies quickly bring the pieces of hose out of the fire truck. On the floor they turn piece by piece into each other.
In the job for a year
Christine Stumpf, Tanja Gumbrecht and Bettina Schierreich have been active in the fire department for about a year now. Before that, they helped out at social events, such as the St. John’s Day bonfire. Bettina felt the same way as Christine during her first assignment: "Your heart goes into your pants", she still knows. Although the excitement would not have been necessary at all. Because at her "first time it was a joint exercise with other fire brigades, which was not announced as such, but as a real operation. Tanja Gumbrecht has no experience in an emergency yet. When she thinks about it, she feels queasy: "I’m really afraid of it", she says. And adds that it’s not the oil spill that worries her. Rather, she imagines that she might encounter people, perhaps seriously injured and in the greatest distress.
"Suction line high!" Thomas Ruhmann gives his ladies the next instruction. The suction line with the three C-pipes is in place. The group meets once a month to practice. Ruhmann is proud of the female firefighters. Not only because there are so many of them, but also because they replace firefighters who cannot be on site during daytime operations due to their jobs. Christian Kasper, then group leader, founded the ladies’ group in 1999 during the tenure of commander Heribert Hahn. The Buch fire department has a total of 54 active members, including eleven women and three firefighter candidates between the ages of 14 and 18. Ruhmann has been a firefighter for 22 years. "Excitement is always present in an emergency", he knows from his own experience.
Monika Pfann has been in the women’s group since its inception. Monika’s motivation is simple: the community and helping out. She remembers: "My first assignment was a false alarm – and that cost me a lot of courage. But after that it got better." So far, Monika has mainly been called out to remove traces of oil. "Suction line to water!" Thomas Ruhmann gives the last instruction to build up the suction line. Fortunately it is only an exercise.