December 14th, 2023 | Deggendorf, Germany - Around the world, the bravery and dedication demonstated by the men and women of the fire and rescue services cannot be under-estimated. To the communities they serve, the fire and rescue services are critical, whether it simply be through knowing that they are or having needed their services in a time of need. In Germany, the Fire Brigades are organised by the “Gemeinden” and “Städte” (“Local Authority/Borough” and “Towns/Cities”), with only larger towns with populations of over 80,000 legally requiring a professional, i.e. full-time, fire service. As a result, the majority of Germany’s 1,383,730[1] firefighters are actually volunteer men and women who freely give their time to serve their local communities, often times putting their personal safety at risk.
The term volunteer fire services implies a sense of amatuerism. However, this could not be further from the truth. Each and every volunteer section is professionally trained, often participating in joint training excerises with neighbouring volunteer services. However, unlike their City Council funded counterparts, the volunteer services rely heavily on fundraising and donations in order to ensure their ongoing operational effectiveness, Deggendorf, like many other local communities in Lower Bavaria, is no different and relies solely on the selflessness of volunteer members - including two of our own teamPASCOM employees - and donations in order to effectively serve our community.
For this reason, pascom has decided to show our gratidue for the volunteer work down by Jonas and Seb and support all to our local Volunteer Fire Fighters by donating € 1,000 to contribute towards the Deggendorf Freiwillige Feuerwehrs (Volunteer Fire Service) ongoing fund raising activities as they look to upgrade their resources, equipment and training facilities as well as supporting the section’s youth programme and youth events.
pascom donation to the Volunteer Fire Service Deggendorf
Mathias Pasquay, pascom CEO:
The emergency services are vital to our community, and with two employees who volunteer for the fire services, we are well aware of how often the volunteer fire services are called up for duty. As an IT and telecommunications company, we are also uniquely aware of the importance of system upkeep, maintenance and modernisation, so it is our honour to support the vital services provided by the Freiwillige Feuerwehr Deggendorf as part of our annual donation this year. Beyond this, we would also like to thank both Seb and Jonas and all their colleagues within their respective volunteer fire service sections for their indispensable efforts to keep our community safe.
Tim Rothenwöhrer, City Fire Inspector, Freiwillige Feuerwehr Deggendorf
We will use the donation from pascom to support our Kids (6yrs+) and Youth (10yrs+) fire brigade programmes. Experiencing camaraderie is one of the focuses of the numerous exercises and events. With such donations, we are able to fund free of charge events for including a day trip to Bayern Park. We also try to build a sense of identity through supplying t-shirts for both the kids and youth fire brigade programmes and then there’s the christmas party. Of course, it’s not all about trips and parties for the youth programmes. To operate effectively, we must also continually maintain and update our equipment. pascom’s generous donation will allow us to invest in our equipment and training programmes to ensure our teams are as well prepared and equipped every time they go out.
About The Volunteer Fire Service Deggendorf
Excerise club and fire engines - the beginnings of the Deggendorf fire department
If a fire broke out when the city of Deggendorf was founded in the 11th century, the citizens were on their own, meaning they must fight every fire single-handedly without the help of a fire department. Only a so-called “Towerer” was stationed in the tower of the old Deggendorfer Town Hall and was responsible for warning fellow citizens in the event of a fire.
After the first hand-operated fire extinguisher was procured in Deggendorf in 1719, the next important step towards centrally organized and technological firefighting in the Danube city followed almost 150 years later. In 1865, the Deggendorf Volunteer Fire Department was founded and organized as an association. The necessary technical equipment was partly taken from the city’s inventory and partly financed by donations. The 84 founding members came from the Deggendorf exercise club - a common practice at the time in order to recruit sufficiently trained, resilient and motivated emergency personnel. In the same year, the first, rudimentary “fire extinguishing regulations” were drawn up and are the forerunner of today’s complex fire service regulations.
feuerwehr-deggendorf.de
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[1] Wikipedia