On 26-27 September 2019, SAFEINTUNNELS, funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme, had its first transnational project meeting in Telfs, Austria.
The project SAFEINTUNNELS is part of the so-called key action 2 within the framework of Erasmus+. The strategic partnership contains of four project partners – the State Fire Brigade school of Tyrol (Austria), the education provider BenPrin (Germany), the Professional Firefighters at City of Reutlingen (Germany) and the Professional Firefighters of Rogaland Brann OG Redning IKS. The Austrian-Italian lighthouse project Galleria di Base del Brennero (BBT) and the Norwegian Safety Tunnel Cluster supports the project as associated partner. SAFEINTUNNELS aims to transfer, develop and implement vocational education modules for firefighters, captains and instructors related to safety in street and railway tunnels in the next three years and formulate a European policy recommendation on this subject.
Why focused the project on street and railway tunnels? A tunnel is one of the most complex building in construction and maintenance. Generally, they are used to ease transit and reduce travel times. But there are no common educational concepts or even standards between the European member states to train and educate firefighters and/or technical relief organizations on this subject. Professional exchange should be mandatory but it is spare and unstructured. SAFEINTUNNELS aims to close a knowledge and action gap for firefighters and victims by improving European conceptualization in firefighting on this particular theme to enhance mutual trust, exchange and recognition between European firefighters as well as their institutions. It will support labour mobility, facilitate European transitions between different levels and types of education and training and place the European cooperation on vocational education and training of firefighters on a unknown comparable and transparent basis. “The primary purpose of SAFEINTUNNELS is saving people’s life. We will produce the first common training concept that can be used throughout Europe”, emphasised HBI Ing. Gerhard Schöpf, head of the vocational education at State Fire Brigade school of Tyrol.
“The European concept developed by SAFEINTUNNELS should be easy to implement in existing teaching concepts”, says Dipl. Ing. Adrian Röhrle, deputy head of the fire department at City of Reutlingen.
Mag. Ida Karner, desk officer vocational education at the national agency in Austria, formulated clear expectations for the next three years to the partners: “SAFEINTUINNELS should serve to prepare firefighters as realistically as possible for their difficult missions in street and railway tunnels.”
M.A. Helen Roth, CEO of the Norwegian Safety Tunnel Cluster sees the big picture: “The Norwegian Tunnel Safety Cluster aims to contribute to safer tunnels and fewer accidents. Travelling from Tromsø to Rome should be relaxed and safe. Therefore, this project is so important for road users, for firefighters and for public authorities dealing with rescue themes.”
Mag. Erwin Reichel, Coordinator Safety and Security at BBT, even takes a look into the future after SAFEINTUNNELS: “In 10 years time, Europeans will travel in 2,5 hours between Munich and Bolzano. This European training concept for firefighters will improve alarm availability around our tunnel.”
Over the next three years, the modules for training will be developed by the four project partners and tested in practice for their suitability and translated into English, German, Italian and Norwegian. This will take place in the participating countries.