Leipe has a new fire engine … and a little bit more

Only a few tourists were still out and about in Leipe when two barges, full of comrades from the Leip fire brigade and delegations from neighboring villages, set off. They had come to attend the inauguration of the new portable pump vehicle (TSF-W) after a tour of the island, as the 30-year-old vehicle had been taken out of service.

A fire department in the inner Spreewald, as in Leipe, has to contend with many special challenges: narrow access routes (mostly cycle paths), remote rivers and sometimes difficult navigation to the incident locations are just some of them. Their new, small and maneuverable vehicle will make rescue missions much easier – knowing full well that they still can’t get to every last corner. In the event of major incidents, however, they can count on support from the neighboring villages, whose fire departments can be on site relatively quickly.

On the other hand, the Leiper Wehr can go practically anywhere with its rescue boat, which was purchased years ago, but is specially designed for rescuing people. In combination with the new vehicle, rescue operations can now be better coordinated. But everything also involves construction work, because the jetty turned out to be too short, as did the garage for the car – so we had to rebuild! Lübbenau’s mayor Helmut Wenzel congratulated the people of Leip on the new vehicle, but correctly stated the sums involved: “We have invested EUR 208,563.51 for the car and EUR 76,694.47 for the extension and thus in the future viability of the Leip fire brigade!”

Fire chief David Bromberger thanked his comrades as well as the city, because without their commitment, which cannot be measured in money, there would not be this “triple inauguration”. This was reason enough for the Leip veteran Herbert Konzack, who has been a member of the fire department for decades, to donate a barrel of beer.

Peter Becker, 12.10.25