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The Brunswick Fire Department Service Center as an example of innovative total solutions and partnership in fire prevention
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Budgetary constraints are increasingly forcing towns and municipalities to adopt a more business-oriented mentality, opening up opportunities for innovative forms of cooperation with private enterprises. In the city of Brunswick, a partnership has been established which to date is unique in Germany, with Dräger Safety helping Brunswick Fire Department to perform its duties. The company planned, built and financed Brunswick's new Fire Department Service Center (FSC), underlining with this pioneering achievement its role as a provider of total problem solutions. In addition, Dräger Safety is enabling the city of Brunswick to refinance its investment through the cooperation agreement. |
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At the beginning, in the year 2000, it was clear that the financial resources available would not stretch to a new fire station in the south of the city with the necessary infrastructure. The new station would require a hose cleaning facility, a workshop for the servicing, care and maintenance of respiratory protective and gas detection equipment, and a training center. "The city's officials had decreed that no new debts were allowed, and that no loans could be taken out", explains Carl-Heinz Beykuffer, Administrative Director of Brunswick Professional Fire Department. Chief Fire Officer Hans-Joachim Gressmann adds: "However, since the infrastructure of our main fire station dates back to the post-war years, something really needed to be done. So we asked ourselves what other ways there might be to finance the urgently needed fire department service center."
Both started putting out feelers in the private economy, holding informal talks with a number of potential partners— among them Dräger Safety—to establish whether there was any general interest and, if so, what solutions industry could propose. They succeeded in persuading the city to invite nationwide tenders for the construction and operation of a fire department service center. As Hans-Joachim Gressmann says: "We were pleased that Dräger Safety submitted a bid, as we had noticed the company's willingness even during the early idea-gathering stages to try to find an innovative solution to our problem." Dräger Safety got through the qualifying rounds, and submitted a persuasive concept which provided a good basis for further talks. The city began negotiations with the Lübeck firm, the outcome of which was a model that would prove profitable to both parties: Dräger Safety was to contribute the financial resources needed to build the center, and would take overall responsibility for construction. In addition, Dräger Safety would be responsible for the servicing and maintenance of the center for the contractually agreed upon term of 15 years, and for training personnel in the FSC. The center itself was to be used by the City of Brunswick Fire Department on the basis of a hire purchase scheme.
The FSC gives Brunswick Professional Fire Department and the city's 30 local fire departments a respiratory protection workshop and modern hose cleaning facility. In addition, a respiratory protection training gallery, a flashover container and training facilities for firefighters are available.
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PPP model
The cooperation agreement between the fire department and Dräger Safety is based on a PPP model (public-private partnership), and covers marketing by Dräger Safety of the wide spectrum of technical services and training seminars offered by the FSC. The profits generated by the cooperation agreement are used to refinance the city's leasing costs. PPP models are used above all in situations where the public sector finds that it can perform its duties better or more cost-effectively by engaging private firms.
Pioneering achievement
When the Fire Department Service Center was officially handed over, Brunswick's Mayor Friederike Harlfinger paid tribute to the pioneering spirit of the Lübeck company: "In Dräger Safety from Lübeck we found a partner who is not only a world-renowned company in the field of safety technology, but also fulfilled all our expectations, even in the difficult initial phase of the project. While contracts were being drawn up, it was already evident that Dräger Safety was prepared to work together with the city to develop new approaches and concepts and to take a fresh look at familiar ground and come up with new ideas and solutions, both for the city and for the company itself." Gerd Zeisler, Dräger Safety Regional Manager for Europe, underlines this by saying: "What we are witnessing here is a pioneering achievement which for the first time combines the interests and needs of the public sector in the fire department segment with those of a private-sector company, giving rise to a profitable situation for both partners. This configuration was completely virgin territory for us, and there were no examples of any similar problem solutions in Germany upon which to base our work."
Infrastructure of the FSC
The infrastructure of the FSC includes the following:
— Respiratory protection workshop with equipment storage area, for care and servicing of the respiratory protective and gas detection equipment of the fire departments, industrial firms and rescue organizations
— Modern respiratory protection training gallery with neighboring exercise and fitness area
— Flashover container in which firefighters can train their response to fire under realistic conditions while wearing respirators
— Modern hose cleaning facility with hose storage area
The new Dräger respiratory protection training gallery has a lot more to offer than the old one at the main fire station. Firefighters are subjected to real stress and their physical and psychological limits are tested in preparation for reallife situations. Wearing respirators, they have to find their way through a maze of tunnels, pipes and slopes, testing their ability to cope in conditions of darkness, heat, smoke and noise. They are monitored from a control panel throughout the exercise by means of contact sensors and an infrared camera.
Things get pretty hot in the flashover container from Dräger Safety: instead of a simulation, the different stages of a real fire in a confined space can be experienced at first hand. At temperatures of over 300 °C and in conditions of thick smoke, the firefighters in the container see for themselves how a flashover develops and learn under controlled conditions how to respond correctly in such situations. In the exercise and fitness area they can improve their physical condition using exercise bikes, treadmills, moving ladders and hammers. Under full medical supervision by Dräger Safety, the firefighters are helped get into shape ready for their next mission, when they have to save lives and protect property.
The state-of-the-art hose cleaning facility replaces the previous 30-meter high hose drying tower and 30-meter long cleaning bath. Now, cleaning and drying a hose is just a matter of minutes, instead of several days as in the past. Given that the Brunswick Fire Department has to wash around 1,000 hoses every year, this saves a great deal of time and labor. The time gained can now be used to clean the hoses of other fire departments and disaster prevention organizations from the local region.
The cooperation agreement with the FSC gives Dräger Safety the chance to build upon its leading position as a provider of services to fire departments and industry, as well as to extend its portfolio of services. Morten Voss, Key Account Manager at Dräger Safety and project leader: "The efficiency of the FSC, combined with our flexible logistics concepts, allows us to make all our services available at a cross-regional level on a large scale. For example, we could now be commissioned to clean all the fire hoses of a works fire department anywhere in Germany. The advantage for our customers is obvious—they get all the services they need from a single company, and do not have to maintain a capital-intensive infrastructure themselves. What is more, to widen the range of training seminars on offer from the Dräger Academy, we will be making the FSC's many different courses available to other fire departments and industrial companies, taking advantage of the expertise of Brunswick Professional Fire Department."
Win-win situation for both partners
Carl-Heinz Beykuffer describes cooperation during the four-year project with the Lübeck specialist in total hazard management as being founded on trust and partnership: "The chemistry between the two partners was good, and by the end of the project it was clear that we had achieved a win-win situation for both." As Hans-Joachim Gressmann adds: "And what is more, we now have the very latest infrastructure and equipment at our disposal!"
The Fire Department Service Center in Brunswick is a success story of cooperation between partners with a pioneering spirit!
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