In the previous year, the number of working hours in the local fire departments rose sharply again. The greatest increase was in so-called major loss events. Also the proportion of women among the 906 above. Fire departments continue to grow briskly, currently at around ten percent.
The 906 Upper Austrian fire departments completed a total of 59,751 missions in 2023. Although this is not a record, it is an increase of over 11,000 missions compared to 2022. The working hours of our Florianis also increased by around 20 percent last year to an impressive 7.55 million hours. This emerges from the annual balance sheet for 2023 of the State Fire Brigade Association, which was presented on Wednesday in Linz. Only nine percent “visible” Of these 7.55 million working hours, only 716,825, or nine percent, are attributable to operations. The rest is “invisible” to the public: service operations, maintenance, training and further education, raising of own funds or youth work make up the remaining 91 percent. December is the busiest month. Domestic fire departments were most frequently alerted in December: 9,509 missions were completed, almost twice as many as in the second busiest month. This was due to both the heavy snowfall at the beginning of the month and the storm front “Zoltan” shortly before Christmas. In the three days before Christmas Eve alone, around 9,000 Florianis were on site for over 2,100 missions. The proportion of women is increasing. Although the number of active members fell by around 850 people last year, the proportion of women is higher than ever: the Upper Austrian fire brigades currently have 9,802 female members is an increase of 183 percent compared to 2009. The guards are prepared: The fire station guidelines provide, among other things, for separate sanitary facilities and changing rooms. No trend in disruptions “An increase in attacks or disruptions to fire brigade work cannot really be determined,” says fire brigade president Robert Mayer. Fortunately, these are only isolated cases, but they would still have a negative impact on morale, especially among volunteers.
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