This year's fire department training starts in Jena

The six-month basic training course for the intermediate fire department at the Jena professional fire department began today at the southern fire station in Göschwitz. The 15 trainees were welcomed by department head Benjamin Koppe and head of department Peter Schörnig. Among the young men are 6 fire officer candidates from the city of Jena (including 1 emergency paramedic, trained by the city of Jena), 4 fire inspector candidates from the Berlin fire department, 3 fire officer candidates from the district of Saalfelkd-Rudolstadt, 1 plant firefighter from the Total refinery in Leuna and 1 fire officer candidate from the Unstrut-Hainich district.

The new career training and examination regulations are applied for the first time - according to these, the training period now lasts 18 months instead of the previous 2 years.

As every year, the young people now have around 1,000 hours of theoretical and practical training ahead of them. This includes 500 hours of theory such as legal basics, German, math, physics, equipment knowledge, fire and extinguishing theory, 400 hours of practical training - from firefighting knots to firefighting attacks, vehicle knowledge, technical assistance, respiratory protection training, 4 days of training camp in Ohrdruf at the Bundeswehr military training area, several days of operational exercises at gas and wood-fired training facilities at the Thuringian State Fire and Disaster Control School, the professional fire department in Dresden and, for the first time, at the company's own hot fire facility at the training grounds in Jena. In addition, there are 100 hours of sports and swimming as well as 50 hours of respiratory protection training.

The responsible department head Benjamin Koppe is satisfied with the development of the Jena training location: "There is a very high demand for training in Thuringia and also nationwide. Word of the good conditions in Jena has spread quickly. The training grounds on the TEAG site in particular offer unique training conditions. Added to this are the experienced instructors from the Jena professional fire department," says Koppe.