On a mission of safety - the responsibilities of the fire department at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems

Our thyssenkrupp Marine Systems shipyard in Kiel has a special feature: its own officially recognized, on-site fire department. It has been on duty since 1984 to ensure occupational safety at the shipyard. For International Firefighters' Day on May 4, we talked to Marcel, one of its members, about the main tasks of the crew.

May 4 is the day of St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, and is known as International Firefighters' Day after five firefighters tragically lost their lives in a bushfire in Australia on January 4, 1999.

The versatile tasks of the on-site fire department.

If you had to sum up the job of a firefighter in four words, they would probably be: Extinguish, Restore, Save and Protect. More specifically, for the firefighters at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems this means protecting and ensuring the safety of all people on the shipyard, protecting and ensuring the safety of important material assets, and averting threats to the environment. Prevention is especially important in order to avoid fires and fire accidents. “The on-site fire department is also called in as specialists for every new building and reconstruction project”, Marcel says.

One of the core functions of the on-site fire department is the safety control center, which is also the first point of contact for external parties such as the police, water police, professional fire department and others. Additional duties of the Center include dispatching and alerting emergency responders, contacting external organizations such as diving operations, initiating contingency plans in the event of damage, and alerting site security personnel in the event of security incidents at the site. Rescue from heights and depths, testing of small fire extinguishers, and training of evacuation and fire safety assistants are other areas of expertise.

Marcel – always on duty for occupational safety and fire protection

As Head of Corporate Protection, Marcel is responsible for firefighting and fire prevention at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. His firefighting career began in 1997 with the volunteer fire department in Kiel, Germany. He joined the Marine Systems on-site fire department in 2008.

His occupation is particularly diverse due to the close cooperation with plant security, the rescue service and the company medical service. For example, rescue operations and missions in the event of occupational accidents are carried out together with the company medical or rescue service. "We often go out to check fire alarm systems, which usually occurs when the fire alarm system has not been switched of during specific operations”, Marcel explains.