Fire department response; collection of reimbursement

Reimbursement of expenses may be requested

• for operations in fire prevention and technical rescue services in which the danger or damage was caused by the operation of motor vehicles, aircraft, rail, watercraft, or a trailer intended to be towed by a motor vehicle, with the exception of operations or activities directly intended for the rescue or recovery of people and animals,
• for other technical assistance operations, with the exception of operations or activities directly intended for the rescue or recovery of people and animals,
• for special fire extinguishing agents used and third-party services in the event of fires in commercial and industrial facilities,
• for operations caused by a hazard brought about intentionally or through gross negligence,
• in the event of a false alarm intentionally or through gross negligence triggered by the fire department, or false alarms triggered by a private fire alarm system or by a system for placing an automatic emergency call or for automatically transmitting an emergency message to a permanently staffed location (eCall),
• if a security service has forwarded an emergency call without verifiable evidence of the need for a fire department response and no action was required for the immediate rescue or evacuation of people,
• for the deployment of an alerted fire department to an incident for which the municipalities of the deployed fire departments may demand reimbursement of expenses, but for which their own intervention was not required,
• for security patrols.

In principle, the party responsible for causing the hazard or the party otherwise obligated to eliminate the hazard is liable for the costs; as well as, for example, anyone who has made use of fire department security patrols or who has triggered a false alarm intentionally or through gross negligence, and the owner of a vehicle or piece of equipment that triggered a false alarm via eCall.