!!!Feuerwehr

Firefighting, is carried out by public organisations under the 
authority of the individual provincial governments uniformly organised 
throughout Austria, run by either municipalities or business companies 
and headed by specialists trained in fighting and preventing fires. 
Legislative and executive authority for the fire brigade belongs to 
the individual provinces; the actual fire fighting and prevention 
activities come under the jurisdiction of the municipalities. There 
are over 4,550 volunteer fire brigades in Austria; they are either 
entities under public law or organised as private associations or 
municipal facilities. In municipalities where a volunteer fire brigade 
does not exist, a firefighting organisation is appointed by 
regulation. The provincial capitals Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck 
and Klagenfurt as well as the Austrian capital, Vienna, all employ 
professional fire brigades. Companies where risk of fire is high 
employ their own firefighters (approx. 320 fire brigades); this can 
also be required by law. The costs of firefighting are covered by the 
municipalities or the companies. All firefighting associations in the 
provinces are organised under an umbrella organisation called the 
Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (OeBFV 
Ges. m. b. H., founded in 1948). The testing centre for 
fire fighting technology run by the OeBFV is a state-approved testing 
and supervision facility with branches in the various provinces.

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In the Middle Ages firefighting was in the hands of the 
municipalities, and associations of tradesmen and guilds were required 
to do the actual firefighting. According to the oldest known fire 
ordinance of 1086 the craftsmen's guild was responsible for 
firefighting in Meran/Merano. In 1642 Innsbruck introduced the 
practice of regularly holding inspections of firefighting units. In 
1685 the City of Vienna established Europe's first professional fire 
brigade with central headquarters at Am Hof. Between 1780 and 1782 all 
of Austria's provinces established a uniform fire ordinance. Organised 
firefighting began in the mid-19%%sup th/%  century when gymnastics 
clubs formed the first firefighting divisions which later became the 
first volunteer fire brigade (1857 in Innsbruck, 1861 in Krems, 1862 
in Wiener Neustadt and Hainburg, 1863 in St. Poelten and Wels, 1864 in 
Klagenfurt, Steyr and Oberndorf near Salzburg, 1865 in Enns, Bad 
Ischl, Vienna-Poetzleinsdorf, Graz etc.). They joined together in 
subsequent years to form district and provincial firefighting 
associations which then formed the "Standing Austrian Firefighting 
Committee" in 1889 (in 1900 it became the Austrian Firefighting 
Association, in 1917 it became the Austrian Imperial Association of 
Firefighters and Rescue Workers and in 1935 it was reorganised to form 
the Austrian Firefighting Association). The first professional company 
fire brigades arose when the firefighting squads were established at 
the Fuerstenfeld tobacco factory in 1813 and at Schwaz in 1831; the 
company fire brigades formed their own association between 1900-1938. 
In the last few decades the fire brigades have increasingly expanded 
their activities to include technical tasks (traffic accidents, search 
and rescue missions, floods). The companies  Rosenbauer in Leonding 
(Upper Austria), Lohr-Magirus in Kainbach (Styria) and Marte in Weiler 
(Vorarlberg) have specialised in the production of technical 
firefighting equipment.  Fires.

!Literature
Fachschriftenreihe fuer die 
oesterreichische Feuerwehr, 1848ff.; Oe. Feuerwehr-Buch, ed. by 
the Oesterreichischer Bundesfeuerwehrverband, 1952; F. Czeike, Das 
Feuerloeschwesen in Wien (13%%sup th/% -18%%sup th/%  century), 1962; 
H. Schneider et al., Das grosse oesterreichische Feuerwehr-Buch, 1986; 
J. Wuerzelberger, Das Niederoesterreichische Feuerwehr-Museum, 1994; 
H. Valentinitsch and J. M. Perschy (eds.), Feuerwehr gestern und 
heute, exhibition catalogue, Halbthurn 1998.


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