On Wednesday afternoon, city hall staff at the Große Bleiche building welcomed an unusual guest: an African grey parrot had “flown into” the building. Unfortunately, it is not known whether the bird was trying to schedule an appointment with Mayor Haase or pick up a supply of yellow trash bags.

The attentive staff at the main office quickly realized that the parrot was very tame and ringed, and willingly settled onto a colleague’s arm. They provided him with water and kept him entertained while colleagues from the fire department arrived in a small emergency vehicle (KLAF) equipped for the task and took the parrot into their care to bring him to the animal shelter.

In the meantime, colleagues at the main office had already discovered that someone was searching on eBay Classifieds in Mainz for a African grey parrot that had flown away from Uferstraße. At the animal shelter, the bird’s ring was read, and the bird and its owner were happily reunited.

   --- Not every bird needs help ---
The fire department’s dispatch center is currently receiving a high volume of emergency calls again regarding supposedly helpless (young) birds in the city. Typically, the fire department dispatch center then dispatches the KLAF emergency vehicle with professional firefighters. However, these are often animals simply resting in the summer heat or young birds that are (still) unable to fly and are alone outside the nest, but are not in danger as a result. If young birds are taken into human care, this often reduces their chances of survival and may even constitute a violation of the Federal Nature Conservation Act, as animals must not be removed from the wild.

If you wish to help young birds, you should distinguish between those with already visible plumage; these are fledglings that should be left undisturbed and, at most, moved from a traffic area to a nearby safer location. If the birds are still completely featherless, you should place them back in the nest if possible, or alternatively under the nest.

The fire department dispatch center urges the public to carefully assess the situation in which the animals were found and their physical condition before approaching them and/or making an emergency call, so that the 112 lines remain free for life-threatening emergencies and emergency responders are available for hazard mitigation operations.

Shortly after 6:30 p.m. this evening, numerous units from the Mainz Fire Department were alerted to a "shipwreck." A tanker loaded with 1,650 tons of nitric acid had dropped anchor near the DLRG station at Mainz’s Winterhafen. The captain had detected water ingress in the so-called "wallgang," the area between the ship’s outer hull and the tanks. Upon the arrival of emergency personnel, a slight list was already visible. No product leakage from the tanks was detected.

Emergency personnel used fire department boats to reach the stricken vessel. After an assessment and brief consultation with the captain, the fire department deployed several submersible pumps to pump out the water that had entered the vessel. Fortunately, this measure quickly stabilized the ship.

The shipping company ordered another tanker motor vessel located nearby. Work began that same evening to transfer part of the acid. Complete unloading is not expected to take place until tomorrow, Sunday, once a second empty vessel has arrived. Repairs to the vessel can then proceed.

The operations were carried out in close coordination with the Water Police and the Waterways Authority. Fire departments from both stations, the City Volunteer Fire Department, and the Mombach and Weisenau Volunteer Fire Departments were on the scene with their rescue boats. They were supported by the Wiesbaden Fire Department and the DLRG. The Johanniterunfallhilfe provided an ambulance for the safety of the emergency personnel.

The Mainz Fire Department was called to a fire at a restaurant on Friday afternoon. When the initial report came in, people were still inside the building, prompting both fire stations to dispatch additional personnel.

For unknown reasons, a fire had broken out in the area of a gas grill inside the restaurant. The fire had already spread through the exhaust system and ignited the contents of a storage room. This caused smoke to spread into the stairwell of the apartment building.

Two people were injured while attempting to extinguish the fire in the restaurant on their own. After receiving treatment from emergency medical services, they were transported to a hospital.

After all occupants had been evacuated from the apartment building, the fire in the ventilation system and in an adjacent storage room was quickly brought under control. The mop-up operations took a little longer. Parts of the ventilation system had to be opened, and the adjacent room where the fire had occurred had to be cleared. The work on the exhaust system was assisted by a chimney sweep who had been called in.

The residents evacuated from the building were cared for by emergency medical services. Due to the large number of people requiring care, the emergency dispatch center alerted additional medical disaster response teams to the scene.

Since smoke had spread into the stairwell and individual residential units through open windows, the building was thoroughly inspected before residents were allowed to return to their apartments.

The fire in the restaurant caused significant property damage to the restaurant itself and adjacent rooms. For the duration of the emergency response, Kaiserstrasse had to be fully closed in that area, resulting in major traffic disruptions in the city.

The Mainz Fire Department deployed a total of 27 personnel from both the professional and volunteer fire departments. The fire department’s efforts were actively supported by police personnel.

The fire department advises that attempts to extinguish a fire on one’s own should only be made if it can be done safely. If the room is already filled with smoke, there is an immediate danger to life. Property damage can be replaced; human lives cannot.