The CTIF History Commission met physically four days in Balatonföldvár, Hungary

Information from the History Commission at the CTIF  and the International Study Group for the History of Fire Service and Fire Protection of the CTIF

After the cancellation of the conference 2020, the 28th meeting of the History Commission could take place from October 6th to 10th, 2021. The Commission and the Study Group met physically four days in Balatonföldvár, Hungary. 

The Chairman of the Study Group, Ingo Valentini and the Chairman of the CTIF Commission, Gerald Schimpf welcomed 83 participants from 14 nations.

Some fire department chroniclers presented their research on "The fire departments in cooperation with other relief and rescue organisations“.

A welcome change back to physical meetings after a year online

Earlier in the year,  On 26.02.2021, 18 commission members held the commission meeting online. We had the pleasure to welcome a new nations for the first time. President Milan Dubravac and Vice President Dr. László BÉRCZI were also connected to the meeting.

Following the presentation of the Nine Nations was the report by Commission Chair  Gerald Schimpf, and reports by museums (Katrin Knaß-Roßmann), vehicles (Patrick Juncker) and the working community by Ingo Valentini. Many thanks to the Hungarian colleagues (Mr Imre Berki, Mrs Takács Gerda, Mrs Eszter DÁVID) who made the meeting possible.

Dear members of the commission, dear members of the study group,

it was really a pleasure to have a committee meeting and a conference where we could meet in person. Not only us, but many of you, the joy of finally seeing each other after the far too long break, was evident. Despite the still difficult planning of events, a large number of you took part - in total there were 83 participants from 14 countries. The efforts to interest delegates from other CTIF member countries in our commission were also successful. In the meantime, 18 countries have already registered delegates for the Commission. The new delegates are from Greece, Portugal, Russia, the USA and Belarus and have attended the meeting online or in person. We were also pleased to welcome a guest from Belgium. The details of the countries and delegates can be found on the History Commission section of CTIF.org.

In the week after our event in Hungary, the CTIF delegates' assembly took place in Marseille, France. An interesting program was offered as the French national fire brigade congress was taking place at the same time. This year, the congress was dedicated to the topic of "Fire and rescue services facing new challenges from climate change" and the French President Emmanuel Macron took part in the opening ceremony. As chairman of the history commission, I took part in the delegates' assembly online, in which CTIF President Milan Dubravac expressed his thanks to the commissions and working groups for the work they had done so far.

Furthermore, Yvonne Näsman from Sweden was elected as a new CTIF Vice President, Canada was welcomed as a new CTIF member country and the former CTIF President Tore Eriksson (CTIF President 2012 to 2020) and the former CTIF Vice President Hubert Vetter (CTIF Vice President 2013 to 2021) were appointed honorary members of the CTIF. Further details on the delegates' assembly can be found here.

I also used the delegates' assembly to get in touch with those countries that have not yet sent delegates to the history commission. I was able to establish initial contacts especially with the representatives of Estonia, Great Britain, Italy and Canada. Canada is currently planning to establish a fire service museum.

It has also been announced that the next delegates' assembly will be held in Slovenia in the course of the CTIF competitions in 2022. The competitions will take place in Celje, Slovenia from July 17th to 24th, 2022 - details can be found here.

So this is our update from the CTIF family for now.

Best regards

Gerald Schimpf Ingo Valentini

Chairman Commission Chairman Study Group