One Eldred Borough volunteer firefighter is certified not only
to fight fires here, but in Germany, too.

Joel Gilfert, 38, has been a member of the Eldred Borough
Volunteer Fire Department since 1985 and is also an EMT. He has
been working for KOA Speer since 1992, and in 1995, he transferred
to KOA Europe, which is just outside of the city of Itzehoe,
Germany. Gilfert lived in Itzehoe for five years from 1995 to
2000.

Gilfert said he signed the City of Itzehoe Volunteer Fire
Department’s Web site’s guestbook and started to receive e-mails
back in February 2001 from members of the department, specifically
Jnrg Meier, 38. A friendship started.

Gilfert said when he was notified he would be heading to KOA
Europe again from October 2001 to February 2002, he e-mailed Meier
to let him know. They arranged an evening they could meet at the
Itzehoe Fire Department.

Gilfert said Meier and he had their first face to face meeting
in October of 2001. Among the other firefighters Gilfert met were
Meier’s brother-in-law Hermann Trennert and full-time Itzehoe
firefighter Jochen Buthmann.

Because Gilfert could speak, read and write in the German
language and knew how fire operations, he was invited to take part
in their fire school and essentials program, where he became
certified as a firefighter. He said every Monday night for about
five months, he trained with them.

As a guest member of the department, Gilfert observed the
differences and similarities between fire departments in Germany
and the United States.

Gilfert explained that their equipment is very similar to ours,
but the fire departments use different slang and fire terms.

“It’s a learning experience,” Gilfert said. “It’s different
terminology.”

Gilfert said one needs a CDL license to drive the fire trucks in
Germany, but he was able to operate the smaller trucks, having been
certified through a class to drive the U.S. fire trucks.

“The learning and training is a lot more specific and advanced.
There’s much more details.”

Gilfert explained German firefighters are certified by doctors
upon passing a physical and a breathing test while American
firefighters do not really have to take a physical.

“It’s a little bit more stringent on that kind of control,”
Gilfert said. “They’re a little bit more particular in their
standards.”

Meier, Buthmann and Trennert visited Gilfert in Eldred for about
nine days last summer. Gilfert said this was their first visit to
America – they wanted to come over and see where he lived.

“I’ve maintained contact over the years,” Gilfert said. “There’s
several others that want to come over here.”

While they were here, Gilfert set up tours for the men at the
City of Bradford and Olean (N.Y.) Fire Departments, the Kane-based
state police barracks, the New York State Police crime lab in
Olean, the McKean County 911 Center and the Eldred Borough and Port
Allegany volunteer fire departments. They were able to observe
pumper practices at both fire departments to see how the
firefighters here operate together.

Gilfert also recently spent time with his friends in Germany
from Dec. 22 to Jan. 7. This time, he was not only able to train
with members of the department, but he was also able to go out on
four fire and ambulance assist calls. Gilfert said he brought his
video camera to document as much fire department activity as he
could to show people here how things work in Itzehoe.

Gilfert explained he wasn’t able to do much hands-on work on
these fire calls simply because he’s not a fully insured member of
the department. Gilfert also wanted to have his hands free to
document as much as he could on video. He said on one call,
however, he was able to spray a little bit of water at fire at
McDonald’s.

Gilfert was able to tour the Schleswig-Holstein regional
emergency call center in Elmshorn, Germany. He said this emergency
call dispatch center is 20 minutes south of Itzehoe and covers
several counties or districts of their state in Germany. He said
they were pretty high tech and highly computerized.

Gilfert said they have two numbers to call as an equivalent of
911. He said the emergency number for fire is 112 and the emergency
number for police is 110.

Gilfert also toured the Steinburg County firefighting school
complex. He said firefighters have to be certified through their
local schools when they graduate. He said in the U.S., firefighters
have to be certified through the state either through a county
level fire school or state fire academy.

“It’s two different systems,” Gilfert said. “It’s an
eye-opener.”

Gilfert also pointed out that every firefighter in Germany has a
national rank military people in the U.S.

“There are differences,” Gilfert explained about the German and
U.S. EMS, police and fire services. “Little things though. The
services are all pretty much the same. Everything that we would do,
they get the same thing.”