conditions for deployment
The environmental protection platoon is a special-purpose force to deal with incidents were hazardous materials are released. This can be a major incident developing out of a road, rail or ship accidents, or accidents within a range of the chemical or nuclear plants in the county. In addition dangerous situations can develop, by inappropriate handling of hazardous materials within the domestic/workshop situation when smaller quantities of dangerous materials are released.

In case of an incident the responsible local fire service unit is deployed, which checks the situation, and determines what measures necessary. If they are not equipped to accomplish the task then they can call for the support of the environmental protection platoon. On deployment we will control the situation depending upon our personnel and material possibilities.
The commander of the environmental protection platoon receives his instructions from the local fire service commander and advises him how best to respond to the hazard.

composition
The environmental protection platoon is manned by volunteers from the fire service units of Kirchohsen, Hagenohsen and Emmern. The vehicles used by the environmental protection platoon, are special vehicles of the County fire-brigade. They are all stationed at the FTZ (Fire brigade technical centre).

deployment

The environmental protection platoon is alerted by digital radio pagers, the fire-fighters assemble at the FTZ and the platoon deploys with the vehicles needed for the task.
In the case of deployment of the environmental protection platoon, automatically the NBC platoon of the county is dispatched to the scene. The co-operation between both units is extremely important for tactical reasons. The NBC platoon establishes the decontamination centres and supplies personnel and equipment for the deployment under chemical protection suits (CSA). Also they are responsible for the monitoring of radiation and chemical pollution if it is necessary. We also train regularly with team hazardous materials of the fire service Hameln.
Some special crews can be deployed if only individual vehicles of the county are required, this concerns in particular the GW-AS and the Tankwagen 7/2.

history
The county of Hameln-Pyrmont setup the hose care establishment in Kirchohsen in the year 1954. The fire brigade Kirchohsen moved onto the grounds of this establishment. Since then there is an arrangement that the fire brigade mans the counties special vehicles. This agreement is still in existence.

In 1984 a vehicle equipped for respiratory protection/ radiation protection (GW-AS) and in 1987 a vehicle equipped for hazardous materials (GW-G) were purchased, the village force also manned these vehicles. However it was quickly realised that handling these vehicles requires special knowledge and this could not be learned in the normal training evenings to the necessary extent. It was decided to form a new group which specialise in hazardous materials and radiation protection. In January 1990 the environmental protection section (UWG) was created within the fire brigade Kirchohsen. Speaker of the group became Antonio Rohde.

In this developing phase one of the largest incidents in our unit history occurred:
On the evening of 15^th of March 1990 the environmental protection section was called to its first deployment. In Hameln the police had directed a hazardous materials transporter on to the parking lot of the BHW, because the container was leaking an unknown liquid.
Under full protection the barrels were unloaded from the truck. The deployment lasted into the early morning hours of the morning. On the same evening there was the next deployment for the environmental protection section. In Lauenstein it was tasked to clean a road after a fertilizer spillage.

In the course of the further training it became clear, that the manpower of fire brigade Kirchohsen had reached its limits. The manning of the new Mobile Command Unit (ELW 3) was transferred to the fire service unit in Ohr and volunteers from the fire service unit Hagenohsen strengthened the UWG in 1992. At the same time with the introduction of a basic training course in the use of chemical protection suites (CSA) began. Background for this was the acquisition of 4 CSA in each of the heavy or main base units in the county. So the fire services in the towns and municipalities had the ability to control a hazardous materials accident with sufficiant protection.

In the year 1993 Michael Ließ took over control of the environmental protection section (UWG), since the comrade Antonio Rohde stepped down for personal reasons.

Since 1994 the comrades of the fire service unit Emmern have strengthen the environmental protection section (UWG). At this point the environmental protection section (UWG) became the environmental protection platoon (UZ), comrade Ließ became its speaker and Wolfgang Risch his deputy.

In 1995 there were changes with the position of “speaker“ of the UZ. Comrade Ließ became Deputy Platoon commander of the fire brigade Kirchohsen and was entrusted with the command of the UZ. In the year 1997 then the official appointment as the platoon commander of the environmental protection platoon by the county fire chief. His deputy Wolfgang Risch was also officially appointed. Thus the command of the environmental protection platoon (UZ) was separated from the fire-brigade Kirchohsen and the environmental protection platoon (UZ) became a county unit.

At the beginning of 2003 comrade Risch laid down his office as a deputy, Antonio Rohde was appointed as his successor.

In November of 2006 because of personnel problems and the agreement between District Emmerthal and County Hameln Pyrmont according to which the fire chief of the volunteer fire brigade Kirchohsen has the responsibility to provide adequate manning of the special vehicles of the county fire-brigade. The command of the fire brigade Kirchohsen approached the county fire-brigade Hameln Pyrmont with the request to place the environmental protection platoon under the organizational responsibility of fire brigade Kirchohsen. The county fire-brigade agreed this suggestion and specified as a deadline 1^st of January 2007. Platoon leader Michael Ließ stepped down. His deputy Antonio Rohde was appointed acting platoon commander by county fire chief Dieter Schulz for the period until the 1^st January.

On the 1^st of January 2007 the environmental protection platoon became a unit of the volunteer fire brigade Kirchohsen as the second platoon within our command structure.

1^st platoon: fire fighting/technical assistance.
2^nd platoon: environmental protection.

On 19.1.07 a meeting of the members of the fire-brigade Kirchohsen was called, also attended by the members of fire service units Hagenohsen and Emmern to select the new commanders.

Wolfgang Risch was appointed to the post of platoon commander and Phil Kreibaum became his deputy.