As the operator of the GENDORF Chemical Park, InfraServ Gendorf operates an on-site professional fire department. More than 50 highly-qualified fire fighters are deployed in 24/7 shift operations at the chemical park. They operate one of the most sophisticated fire departments in Germany and their equipment is specialized for large scale chemical facility deployments.
In emergencies, the fire fighters are on location with their specialized emergency equipment within no more than five minutes. The standards for team members are high. A total of three vocational degrees are therefore required to qualify for the fire department at the GENDORF Chemical Park: vocational training as a mechanic, vocational training as a fire safety specialist, and finally as an emergency medical technician (EMT) or rescue specialist. The Gendorf fire department also makes its high training and equipment standard available outside of the chemical park, for instance when local fire departments require support. The plant fire department also offers training opportunities for external incident response staff.
Regular drills
The high functional qualifications of the fire fighters are supplemented with hands-on drills that are conducted daily. In addition, there are about 1,000 deployments annually, with many of these also outside of the chemical park, primarily for traffic accidents. But the vast majority of the deployments are false alarms. The extra effort is reflected in the safety concept as part of the budget. The motto is: "It is better to respond ten times to a false alarm than to show up late once for an actual emergency."
Annual joint exercises are organized together with the public fire departments and first responders of the county Altötting and with the incident response staff of other chemical facilities.