THW OV Mainz

Travel, travel, travel and make pictures of me in front of fire departments, police stations, fire engines, police cars, ambulances etc.

This is a TB of the THW local chapter Mainz.

The Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk (Federal Agency for Technical Relief, THW) is a civil protection organisation controlled by the German federal government. 99% of its 83,807 members (January 2010) are volunteers.

The tasks of the THW are described in a law called THW-Gesetz. These tasks are:

• technical and logistical support for other (German) GOs, NGOs or other authorities like fire brigades, police or the custom authorities
• technical or humanitarian relief in foreign countries, as assigned by the government
• technical relief in Germany as part of national civil protection measures.

The THW is stationed all over Germany in 668 local chapters, called Ortsverbände (OV). Some 80,000 people are active in this organisation including about 15,000 young volunteers (members of the THW-Jugend). The majority of those are volunteers, while about 800 work full-time in its administration. Each local chapter (Ortsverband) maintains one or more Technische Züge (technical platoons), each consisting of one Zugtrupp (command squad), comprising four volunteers, two Bergungsgruppen (rescue units) comprising nine (first unit) to twelve (second unit) volunteers, and one to three Fachgruppen (Technical Units), comprising four to eighteen volunteers.

The Fachgruppen (Technical Units) include:

• Bridge Building, (Brückenbau)
• Command, Control and Communication, (Führung und Kommunikation)
• Debris Clearance, (Räumen)
• Demolition/Blasting, (Sprengen)
• Electricity Supply, (Elektroversorgung)
• Illumination, (Beleuchtung)
• Infrastructure, (Infrastruktur)
• Logistics, (Logistik)
• Oil Pollution, (Ölschaden)
• Search and Detection, (Ortung)
• Water Damage / Pumps, (Wasserschaden / Pumpen)
• Water Hazards, (Wassergefahren) and
• Water Supply and Treatment, (Trinkwasserversorgung).

For relief in foreign countries, there are four Schnelleinsatzeinheiten Bergung Ausland or SEEBA (Rapid Deployment Unit Search and Rescue Abroad) units, able to go airborne within six hours, and five Schnelleinsatzeinheiten Wasserversorgung Ausland or SEEWA (Rapid Deployment Unit Water Supply and Treatment Abroad) units.