State championship

Carinthian fire departments deliver top performance again

Water, march in St. Veit!(Bild: Jennifer Kapellari)

The fighting spirit is burning in St. Veit! The Carinthian fire department championships are being held for the 64th time this year - over 1300 firefighters give their best!

Extinguishing attacks, relay races, dry competitions and even the youth are challenged: At the 64th provincial championship of the Carinthian fire departments, more than 1300 firefighters want to prove themselves and compete fairly with their comrades! "A big thank you goes to the fire departments that are organizing this year's competition: FF Hörzendorf Projern, St.Veit an der Glan and St. Donat!", emphasizes Friedrich Monai, District Commander St. Veit, and enthuses about the specially prepared arena.

Since 6 a.m., 80 active competition groups from all over Carinthia have been competing against each other in the bronze, silver and gold (women and men) firefighting competitions at the racecourse in St. Veit. Unlike in other federal states, these competitions are held as wet competitions in Carinthia.

The firefighters worked up a sweat in the relay race(Bild: Jennifer Kapellari)

A fire-fighting attack had to be carried out in the wet competition.(Bild: Jennifer Kapellari)

The line-up was also included in the scoring(Bild: Jennifer Kapellari)

The women's group of the Villach-Stadt district fire brigade shortly before their turn.(Bild: Jennifer Kapellari)

"The atmosphere and the weather could hardly have been better", as Dietmar Hirm, Deputy Regional Fire Brigade Commander for Carinthia, notes: "The regional championship is the supreme discipline of the competitions! Everyone who has qualified is proud to be there!" And the performances are more than impressive: "The groups are outstanding! But this competition is much more important for camaraderie!" says Hirm.

And the competition groups once again put in top performances: some of them completed faultless runs in the best times! For example, the members of the Flattach/Fragant fire brigade carried out their extinguishing attack in 74.33 seconds in the silver A competition - the group is currently in first place. 

Over 600 young firefighters took part
The youngest members of the fire brigade were also eagerly awaiting their turn: at the 19th provincial youth performance competition, the young firefighters have to prove their skills and knowledge: They have to cross a water ditch and other obstacles, tie knots, correctly assign equipment and finally, the team has to line up correctly. "The performances improve from year to year," says Monai. 

Another highlight is likely to be the "Cup of Cup Winners" - where the teams that have won the previous cups compete against each other. The provisional results can be found here - the national championships are still going strong until 7 pm!