Large-scale flooded cities and communities as well as thousands of desperate people who are still trapped in their homes. The Belgian emergency services have been fighting a flood of the century for many hours. A few hours after the call for help, the first fire brigade aid convoy from Lower Austria formed: at 5 p.m. on July 15, 103 disaster relief workers with 26 rescue workers started from the state fire brigade headquarters in Tulln.
The human and technical resources in Belgium are overloaded. In order to accelerate the evacuations, the authorities there triggered the EU mechanism a few hours ago and asked the European partner countries for help. The Ministry of the Interior immediately forwarded the request to Lower Austria and the answer followed promptly in consultation with State Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner from State Fire Brigade Commander Dietmar Fahrafellner: “We are of course happy to help.”
The first convoy started within six hours
The first convoy with 103 firefighters has been on the road since 5 p.m. and has 26 lifeboats in its luggage, seven of which are special flat-water boats that are manoeuvrable and allow rescue operations even at the lowest water levels. “They can be rowed by hand, but they can also be extended with a motor. The aid transport is also equipped with a flood protection container, which is equipped with all modern tools for such scenarios, ”explains fire department spokesman Franz Resperger.
Quota can be expanded many times over
If necessary, the quota can be expanded many times over. “We could send a total of up to 60 lifeboats, including trained skippers, to Belgium. But also large pumps and powerful power generators. In any case, our people are ready to go. They are now used to deployments abroad ”, says state fire brigade commander Dietmar Fahrafellner and looks back on 2014, when it was called“ land under ”in Bosnia. There the firefighters from Lower Austria were able to rescue 225 people from the floodplains in a 22-day mission and pump water from hundreds of houses.
The first convoy with 103 firefighters from Lower Austria left the base of the Lower Austrian Fire Brigade Association in Tulln at 5 p.m. and will arrive in the disaster area in Liège in the early hours of the morning.