Operational exercise fire department Cloppenburg

June 17, 2023, 2 p.m. – Fire alarm at Emsland Food GmbH in Cloppenburg!

A total of ten emergency vehicles and over 40 comrades from the Cloppenburg fire department gradually arrive. The fire is on the first floor of the industrial building. Human lives are in danger. Four people are missing. The fire department is able to fight the fire, rescue three people from the upper floor and recover an unconscious person from the first floor. Suddenly, another incident occurs. A completely enraged employee reports a colleague missing in the supply tunnel. The comrades fight their way through an extremely narrow, warm and filled tunnel to the trapped person. With extreme caution, they are able to free the person successfully.

What sounds like a real incident was fortunately only an operational exercise!

The idea for implementing the annual exercise of the Cloppenburg fire department at Emsland Food GmbH came from Jens Hohendorn, occupational safety specialist and himself a member of the fire department. Together with city fire chief Horst Lade and group leaders Clemens Kenkel and Oliver Karg, the exercise was planned and organized for months – of course under strict secrecy.

Two operational scenarios were created under real conditions in order to evaluate the Cloppenburg Fire Department’s ability to deal with both the operational command and the processing of the tasks set. At the same time, of course, the technical and organizational fire protection of the Emsland Group could be put to the test and the interaction of both parties could be improved.

Special thanks go to the plant manager from Cloppenburg, André Brinkman. He has supported the action from the beginning and made it possible.

This exciting and spectacular day ended with a joint debriefing and refreshments. “It was a complete success – everyone was more than happy,” emphasizes Jens Hohendorn.