The catering service is made up of around 120 people, most of them volunteer firefighters, alongside six full-time staff. Their mission is to ensure that crews are supplied with food and drink during major operations.
Josiane Bartz has been volunteering with the unit for 18 years. She explained that whenever firefighters are deployed, the emergency number 112 informs the team about the number of people involved and which brigades are on site.
Based on that information, the catering crew calculates what provisions will be needed. She added that not every deployment requires a full meal: sometimes it is just a “Ravi 1", which means providing basics such as chocolate, water, and coffee. A “Ravi 2", by contrast, involves sending out the food truck and preparing hot meals on location.
In most cases, it is indeed the food truck that is dispatched. Most recently, it was called out at the beginning of July. With it, the service can provide rescuers with warm meals and drinks directly at the scene.
