Shortly after noon on November 20, 2020, the Mainz Fire Department was called to a traffic accident on the A60 highway. Between the MZ-Großberg and MZ-Laubenheim junctions, a car had crashed into the guardrail, tipped over onto its side, and slid across all three lanes.

Even before the fire department arrived, first responders had made contact with the injured person and were able to rule out serious injuries by questioning them. The first responders also decided to put the vehicle back on its wheels.

This was absolutely fine in this case and would also have been done by the fire department. However, such actions require basic medical and technical knowledge. It is essential to avoid sudden tilting back.

In order to allow the emergency medical services, who had also been alerted, access to the patient, the driver's door had to be opened with technical equipment.

Three lanes had to be closed during the rescue operation. Traffic could only pass the accident site via the hard shoulder. This resulted in a long traffic jam. In addition to the fire department, the emergency medical services and the police were also on duty.

Head of operations: Fire Chief Rüdiger Zeuner-Christ
Fire department/fire brigade vehicles: 4 / 0 Fire
department/fire brigade personnel: 16 / 0
Image material: Image rights belong to the Mainz city administration.

During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the Mainz fire department was called to a fire in a high-rise building in Mainz's Oberstadt district at 12:42 a.m.

When the first responders arrived on the scene, flames were already shooting out of an apartment on the 6th floor at the rear of the 14-story central section of the high-rise complex. Due to the situation, the alarm level was raised and additional responders were immediately dispatched to the scene, and off-duty members of the professional fire department were also alerted.

The fire department prepared to attack the fire from the outside using the turntable ladder and from the inside with several teams wearing breathing apparatus. As standard procedure, a depot for emergency personnel and equipment was set up on the unaffected 5th floor.

Several residents were brought to safety by the fire department and led outside. The apartment was fully engulfed in flames. At 1:10 a.m., the fire was brought under control by several teams. Due to the massive spread of smoke, the entire high-rise complex had to be evacuated, with a total of approximately 150 people being cared for at a gathering point in front of the building. Six people were treated by emergency services for suspected smoke inhalation and taken to nearby hospitals.

Fourteen apartments on the floor affected by the fire and another 14 apartments on the 7th floor above are uninhabitable due to smoke damage. 

The affected residents were looked after by approximately 50 rescue and medical service personnel at a designated assembly point on site. After the unaffected parts of the building had been checked, the majority of residents were able to return to their apartments. For residents who were unable to return to their homes, emergency accommodation was set up in a nearby sports hall. Care was organized by the health section management and carried out by several medical service units.

The follow-up firefighting work proved difficult and continued into the early hours of the morning. 

The police were also on site with several officers and supported the rescue services, particularly in returning residents to their homes. The criminal investigation department is investigating the cause of the fire.

Head of operations: Fire Department Chief Hermann Wagner
Vehicles BF/FF: 24
Personnel BF/FF: 94 Emergency personnel
Image material: Image rights belong to the City of Mainz

On November 26, 2020, shortly before 5:00 p.m., an accident occurred between a car and a truck on the BAB 60 motorway in the direction of Darmstadt, between the Mainz interchange and the Mainz Hechtsheim-West junction.

At the end of the transition from the BAB 61 to the BAB 60, a truck came to a standstill due to a technical defect in the brakes. The driver of a minivan recognized the obstacle too late and drove into the stationary semi-truck with almost no braking. Rescuing the trapped driver proved to be a little more difficult than the fire department is usually accustomed to.

The minivan had been converted to be wheelchair accessible so that the driver could drive his electric wheelchair up to the steering wheel and steer the vehicle from it. For this purpose, the wheelchair was firmly connected to the vehicle with an electric lock. The lock was deformed due to the impact and could no longer be opened. This meant that the wheelchair could not be moved into position to free the injured driver. To rescue the injured person, the B-pillar of the car and the backrest of the wheelchair were removed using hydraulic rescue equipment. It was then possible to gently free the injured person from the vehicle.

During the technical rescue, the driver received constant care from the emergency services and emergency doctors and, after being freed from the crashed car, was taken to a hospital in Mainz for further treatment. During the rescue operation, only the left lane of the highway was available, so that a kilometer-long traffic jam quickly formed on both highways during rush hour.

Head of operations: Fire officer Axel Kiesewalter Fire department
vehicles: 4 Fire department
personnel: 12

At 5:28 a.m. this Friday morning, the Mainz fire department was alerted by the automatic fire alarm system of a department store on Schusterstraße.

On site, the firefighters detected smoke in several rooms in the staff area and the ventilation control center, spread over two floors. The cause was traced to a technical room. Parts of the building's technical equipment were on fire, and the smoke spread across several floors via the connected ventilation and technical shafts. The fire department extinguished the fire with a hollow jet pipe and ventilated the affected areas.

The ventilation and technical shafts affected by the fire then had to be thoroughly checked to prevent the fire from spreading further. Several teams wearing breathing apparatus were deployed for this purpose. The crews from both professional fire stations were supported on site by the Mainz-Stadt volunteer fire department.  

The extent of the damage cannot yet be estimated.

Some of the sales areas were reopened while the fire department was still working on the scene. The fire department's operations were completed at 9:15 a.m.

Head of operations: Fire Chief Hermann Ziegler
BFFF vehicles: 1 command vehicle, 2 rescue fire engines, 1 turntable ladder, 1 equipment vehicle, 1 multi-purpose vehicle, 1 command vehicle / 1 firefighting vehicle
BF/FF personnel: 20 / 6