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“The decisive factor was that we no longer knew 100 percent whether we would still have the necessary clout in the future,” says commander Christoph Scherrer, who has been at the head of the fire brigade with 58 members for eight years. He emphasizes that there were major problems in motivating young people to join the fire brigade. “We already have few young people anyway, and the children are divided between three school districts, and there is also an oversupply of leisure activities for young people.” In the end there were only three children in the youth group.
After more than 100 years of existence, nobody wanted to end it so easily, many were also very committed. “There were many discussions, but in the end there was no alternative,” explains the commander in an interview with the Upper Austria News
Five other fire departments
The small fire brigade, which is responsible for four towns, had only a few operations per year, and there are only a few risky objects in the area near the communities of Pötting and Kallham. “The training has become more and more professional, which of course makes sense, but it is difficult for small fire brigades to be able to afford the effort,” says Scherrer. District fire brigade commander Herbert Ablinger regrets the dissolution. “It’s painful and hurts us managers, but the safety of the population is not reduced, we have five other fire brigades in Peuerbach,” emphasizes Ablinger. He also says that the fire station was not state-of-the-art, it was basically just a garage and a lot had to be invested.
The area of the FF Oberndorf is divided among other fire brigades. “We will try to persuade as many fire brigade comrades as possible to join other fire brigades,” says Ablinger. He does not rule out that due to the change in structures, other smaller fire brigades will have to close their doors in the future. In the Grieskirchen district, the last closure was in 2018. At that time, the Weng fire brigade in the Hofkirchen community was affected, where there are still two fire brigades.
Peuerbach’s mayor Roland Schauer (citizens’ list) says it’s a shame and painful when a fire brigade is dissolved. “It was a long process, a lot of talks were held, but ultimately many lacked a perspective given the lack of young talent.” Those who want to remain active will get involved with neighboring fire brigades.
Source: Nachrichten
