WIESBADEN, Germany --Wiesbaden firefighter Christian Schipper was selected Civilian Firefighter of the Year for Installation Management Command-Europe. He received the award for his commitment to the self-contained breathing apparatus shop at the Wiesbaden Fire Department on Clay Kaserne and will go on to compete at the IMCOM level..
“I am very proud that my technical knowledge and my commitment stood out,” Schipper said. “I turned my hobby into my profession. The fire department is like a second family to me.”
When Schipper became branch leader in 2017, he advocated for the modernization of the shop and made sure the disinfection routines were optimized. SCBAs have to be cleaned properly after every use to make sure no infections are transmitted to the next user.
Instead of cleaning the SCBAs manually with aggressive disinfectant, he ensured the shop was equipped with a washer that made the manual handling of the chemicals superfluous, he said.
He has to make sure that the breathing apparatus are in optimal condition, Schipper said. The SCBAs have to be serviced every six months no matter if they are used or not. If an SCBA does not properly function in an emergency situation, the user may suffocate in a burning building.
As SCBA branch leader, Schipper also has to deal with paperwork, documentation and organizational issues, he said, making sure all SCBA equipment is well-maintained.
The air in the breathing air bottle has to meet European quality standards. The bottles themselves have to be checked on a regular basis, since they hold 6 liters (1.58 gallons) of air that is compressed with 300 bars (4,351.13 pounds per square inch). In comparison, a car tire has a pressure of approximately 2 bars (29 psi).
“I was born into a firefighter family, and at the age of 10 I became a member of the youth fire brigade,” he said. “It has always been my dream to be a professional firefighter. And at one point, my dream came true … and now here I am, hopefully, until retirement.”