Get information about fire protection

Preventive fire protection includes measures designed to prevent fires, contain their spread, and ensure the rescue of people.

Different agencies are responsible for fire protection and hazard prevention:

• the municipalities for fire protection and general assistance
• the districts for inter-municipal fire protection and inter-municipal general assistance
• the districts and independent cities for disaster relief
• To fulfill its central tasks, the state has established the State Office for Fire and Disaster Protection in Koblenz and maintains the Fire and Disaster Protection Academy here for training purposes.

The fire department is financed by the respective responsible authority. The state also provides additional support, which enables the purchase of items such as new equipment, personal protective equipment, and the construction or renovation of fire stations.

Professional Fire Brigade: Cities with over 90,000 inhabitants, such as Kaiserslautern, Koblenz, Ludwigshafen, Mainz, and Trier, are required to have a professional fire department. Smaller municipalities may also establish a professional fire department.

Volunteer fire department: Municipalities without a professional fire department must establish a volunteer fire department. If there are not enough volunteers, people are conscripted for service ("compulsory fire service"). In larger cities without a professional fire department, there are often volunteer fire departments with full-time personnel, as in Neuwied, Worms, Speyer, and Pirmasens.

Company fire brigade: In companies with an increased risk of fire or explosion, as well as other specific hazards, the Supervisory and Service Directorate can order the establishment of a plant fire brigade. This brigade can consist of full-time and/or part-time members. Examples include the plant fire brigades of BASF, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Schott Glass.

Training at the Rhineland-Palatinate fire brigades takes place in a network system: from local training to district training to the central school in Koblenz.

In the future, all non-police emergency calls will be received and coordinated centrally by eight integrated control centers. These integrated control centers will thus function as a single reporting point.