INTERNATIONAL FIRE BRIGADE OLYMPICS IN VARAŽDINU -

Motif: St.Florian (wooden sculpture from the portal of the Varaždin church) and a panorama of Varaždin; motifs on pendants: the photo of a fire-fighting aeroplane letting out water and an old fire-fighter’s helmet from the Croatian Fire Service Museum. The area of Central Europe has always been known as the cradle of European fire service. At the same time, there is a special place in the history of the Croatian people that belongs to the firemen, because it belongs to the fundamentals of their patriotism to be organized in order to confront the fire and conflagration as an elementary catastrophe, but also as an inescapable component of our reality. Starting from its beginnings 140 years ago up to the present times, the Croatian fire service by its ample tradition and activity, proves to have a permanent and unbreakable association to European civilization, based on the principles of humaneness and reciprocity. Only a few countries have had the opportunity so far to organize the prestigious fire service manifestation, the so called International Fire Brigade Competition for countries all over the world that is organized every fourth year under the supervision of the CTIF, the International Technical Committee for the Prevention and Extinction of Fire. The competition of fire-fighters, under the patronage and organized by the CTIF started in 1961, after the passing of the Decision on competitions of fire-fighters associated in the CTIF, at the meeting of the International Technical Committee for the Prevention and Extinction of Fire in Bordeaux in 1960. THE APPEARANCE OF THE CROATIAN FIRE-FIGHTERS AT THE FIRE BRIGADE OLYMPICS The first competition of Croatian fire-fighters took place in Bad Godesberg in 1961. At this competition, or popularly called Fire Brigade Olympics”, the Croatian fire-fighters, though appearing under the flag of the former Yugoslavia and the only ones from the “eastern block”, the so called socialist countries, were the best among 52 teams from 13 countries. Then, for the first time after 130 years of the existence of voluntary fire service in Croatia, the Croatian flag flattered high up at the 10th competition of the CTIF fire-fighters in Berlin in 1994. Out of 162 competitive squads from Europe, there were ten from the independent Republic of Croatia. Croatia’s fire service team participated in all the disciplines: the teams taking part were the voluntary fire service societies from Donja Kaštela, “Mladost” from Kaštel Sućurac, societies from Trebarjevo Desno and Strahominec, “Međimurska trikotaža” from Čakovec (women) and “Regeneracija” from Zabok (men), and all of them represented the voluntary fire service in the state economy, while professional fire service formations from Varaždin and Rijeka presented the Croatian professional fire service to the world. The Finnish town Kuopio hosted the 12th Fire Brigade Olympics from 22nd to 28th July 2001. At this greatest European meeting there were 2,600 fire-fighters from 27 European countries, and Croatia was represented by the first placed teams from the state competition. FIRE BRIGADE OLYMPICS 2005 IN VARAŽDIN After Karlovac in 1966, the town of youth, flowers and the Baroque, Varaždin, will host the meeting of fire-fighters from the whole world in mid July under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Croatia. The opening ceremony of the “Fire Brigade Olympics in Varaždin will be held on July 17, 2005 at the King Tomislav Square, and the closing ceremony will take place on July 24, 2005 at the Sloboda Stadium. More than 4,000 participants from some thirty countries from all over the world are expected at this competition. Among the attractive demonstrations of fire extinction and rescue as component parts of the competition, special emphasis will be put on the mutual coordination of all team members and the accuracy of the execution of specific tasks. The execution of activities, along with the maximal speed and perfect technical accuracy, also demands professional skills, a high level of well-drilled training and exceptional discipline. These are the characteristics of the everyday life of each of the fire-fighters’ organizations all over the world. The competition itself consists of three separate disciplines: • Traditional fire brigade competition (carrying out fixture contest and fire brigade steeple relay); • Fire brigade sports competition (consisting of bolt ladder contest, fire extinction, fire brigade steeple relay contest and individual 100 m race); • Youth fire brigade (age 12 to 16) competition (consisting of a fixture contest and fire brigade steeple relay). In the first two disciplines there are categories for the senior teams for women and men, separately for voluntary and professional fire brigades. In the youth fire brigade competition there are categories for boys (or mixed teams) and for girls. For the youngest participants of the youth fire brigade competition there will be a “Fire Brigade Camp” with numerous programmes, with the specifically interesting “Camp Olympics” programme.