As part of the last district council meeting of the 2019/2024 legislative period, District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo bid farewell to the NBC platoon leadership with Steffen Rastetter (Blieskastel) and his deputy Jürgen Lapré (Bexbach) at the helm and appointed the new leadership with Dr Martin Weinmann (Limbach) and Manuel Langenbahn (Reinheim). As the successor to Wolfgang Nehlig, District Fire Chief Steffen Rastetter had led the Saarpfalz district's NBC platoon since the beginning of 2008. At the beginning of his term of office, he was instrumental in initiating the amalgamation of all municipal NBC units together with his then deputy Manfred Klein from the Bosch plant fire brigade. Finally, he was in charge of developing the new joint district-wide NBC concept.
"As a special fire brigade unit within the Saarpfalz district's fire and disaster control services, the NBC platoon is responsible for dealing with incidents involving hazardous substances. Our district-wide NBC platoon with two sub-units has proven itself in numerous operations. I would like to thank Steffen Rastetter and Jürgen Lapré, who has also been working here on a voluntary basis since 2016, for their special commitment for the benefit of the population in the Saarpfalz district," praised District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo.
The NBC concept in the Saarpfalz district, which has been in place for years, has been updated in recent months together with the NBC officers of the municipal fire services and the fire brigade commanders in the district. In the course of this, two experienced firefighters, Dr Martin Weinmann (Limbach) and Manuel Langenbahn (Reinheim), were found who would like to take over the NBC platoon leadership beyond the upcoming end of the term of office of the current district fire inspector Uwe Wagner. "Especially in this day and age, we need to recognise these voluntary activities more, because on the one hand they are necessary, but on the other hand they are anything but self-evident," emphasised District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo and presented Manuel Langenbahn with the certificate of appointment as deputy NBC platoon leader with his best wishes. The wishes also went to the new NBC platoon leader Dr Martin Weinmann, who was unfortunately unable to make the appointment.