The German Fire Brigade Association (DFV) and the Association for the Promotion of German Fire Protection (vfdb) have published a joint brochure in 2019 after two years of work, which describes the correct behaviour in the casw of a fire.

 

“The expert recommendation is aimed both at the residents of apartments and at fire brigades and specialists in fire protection education and information,” explains Frieder Kircher, Chairman of the Joint Committee.

 

The committee came to the following conclusions:

1. The recommendations for action must be more detailed, even if the problem arises that difficulties arise when reading the longer text.

2. There is no standard rule on behaviour that applies to every situation in every type of building when living. The detailed rules of behaviour for a fire in a single-family house differ in several points from the rules for a fire in an apartment building. The following four cases are therefore distinguished in the technical recommendation “Behaviour in case of fire”:

 

1. Fire in the own apartment of an apartment building

2. Fire in another apartment of a m apartment building

3. Smoky staircase in an apartment building

4. Fire in a single-family dwelling

 

3. Pure catchwords or mnemonics are not sufficient. There must be detailed explanations that address the users directly. In particular, these serve multipliers such as fire safety instructors or teachers to explain the mnemonic sentences to the users

4. Flow charts are used to clearly explain the principles of action.

 

The following short video is very illustrative: “Nils explains the fire protection” – from the video channel of the professional association for health service and welfare (BGW)

 

 

 

For the purpose of clarity, the four individual cases are also treated separately here.

 

“With the new technical recommendation, the Joint Committee for Fire Protection Education and Fire Protection Awareness continues its strategic work in this area, which was started with the technical recommendation ‘Emergency Calls in Fire Protection Education’ and is to be continued in the future,” Kircher concludes.