ifa

Recreation room and cafeteria

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:10:00 +0100

From now on, all our course participants and instructors will be able to make use of our recreation room, equipped with TV, music and games; whether for a game of billiards, table football or darts with colleagues, at any time, for as long as you want and completely free of charge. Drop in whenever you have the time – in your break, at lunchtime or in the evening and have fun.

Thirsty? The new cafeteria and bar is open on selected days and evenings for a cool beer or a glass of wine. Come and join your friends for the evening and discuss the day’s events. Our staff look forward to serving you!

Modern double rooms

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:06:00 +0100

Course participants and instructors can now stay overnight in our 22 modern rooms. Each double room has plenty of storage space, its own WC and shower and two workstations. Wireless LAN has been installed to give guests instant access to the Internet or emails via their notebook or Smartphone. The cost for an overnight stay including breakfast, Internet access and use of the recreation room is CHF 80.-- per person for the double room or CHF 120.-- for single occupancy.

Be our guest and enjoy the convenience of staying overnight at the ifa in Balsthal.

Traditional “End of construction” party!

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:05:00 +0100

Around 140 craftsmen came to help us celebrate completing the construction work at the ifa. Ifa Director, Urs Kummer, used images and films to provide an informative look at the ifa, the tunnel project and the infrastructure expansion. He gave particular thanks to the craftsmen, without whose extraordinary efforts and work, the construction work could never have been completed successfully.

After a delicious three course meal, each craftsman was presented with two gifts. Around forty of the craftsmen made the most of the opportunity to inaugurate the cafeteria along with the ifa team. The last guests left the bar after midnight!

New refectory is up and running

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:05:00 +0100

The new, attractively-designed refectory in the reception building (Building A) has been fully operational since 8th February 2010. With seating for up to 200, it also has a large free-flow area. A new self-service salad bar has been added to give guests an even wider choice of daily menu. Our modern refectory will not only be used to offer meals to course participants; it can also be used as a flexible event venue for many diverse purposes.

We hope all our visitors enjoy their meals and their stay and come back for seconds!

ISO certification renewed successfully

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:15:00 +0100

The SQS – the Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems carried out a one day renewal check of all the ifa processes for the ISO 9001:2008 quality norm certification. All quality management systems documents were revised completely and then made accessible to staff members using the ifaNET, our internal website. By eliminating paper copies, the documents can not only be guaranteed up to date, the administrative load is also significantly reduced. At the end of the check, the ifa and all the staff were congratulated on having successfully renewed the certification.

Welcoming a new member of staff: Josef Winistörfer

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:39:00 +0100

To further strengthen our team, Josef Winistörfer joined the ifa on the 1st November as a technical all-rounder. Josef is 46 years old and a married father of one. He lives in Matzendorf and is a fire brigade officer, bringing 25 years’ experience with him to his new role. Josef is a trained electrician and an EMSR systems specialist. Thanks to his extensive professional experience, he is the ideal person to complement our team. We would like to welcome Josef Winistörfer to our team, wish him a smooth start and lots of success!

Open Days at Balsthal and Lungern

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:40:00 +0100

On a beautiful autumn weekend on the 3rd and 4th of October 2009, the inter-cantonal fire brigade training centre – ifa, opened its doors in Balsthal and Lungern to welcome just under 18,000 enthusiastic visitors who all wanted to make the most of this unique opportunity to take a look behind the scenes.

Around 12,000 visitors came to the extensive grounds of the ifa in Balsthal to find out more about the various training possibilities. The new tunnel training facilities, the Swiss Railways (SBB) internal fire- fighting service fire and rescue trains, the various sized (model) fire brigade vehicles, the hydraulic platform rides that lifted visitors to a height of 35 metres, the road traffic accident rescue exercises and the model fire brigade vehicle show all drew large crowds. Visitors appreciated the clear and informative signposting for the numerous tours and exhibitions. Our younger visitors thoroughly enjoyed trying on the protective clothing worn by fire fighters and putting out fires with an extinguishing bucket. And what better way to enjoy the mild autumn sun than by discussing the open day with other visitors over a traditional grilled “Bratwurst” sausage? The P&S (Protection and Support) Competence Centre (ziko) also joined the ifa in opening its doors in Balsthal and made a valuable contribution to the success of the weekend. The weekend was also accompanied by various musical attractions including the P&S band, the city of Basel Caledonia Pipe Band and a jazz matinee.

The 6,000 or so interested visitors to the Lungern site wanted to see the new ifa tunnel training facility and the infrastructure of our partner in Lungern, Gasser Felstechnik AG. The main attraction proved to be the 130m fire tunnel that allows emergency services to practice mastering extreme operational scenarios under very realistic conditions. Also on offer for visitors was the chance to see the impressive range of rock engineering technology displayed by our partner Gasser Felstechnik AG.

Thanks to the generous support of our many helpers, the organising committee can look back with pride and contentment on two successful large scale events without any glitches or accidents.
Click here for images of the Open Days at Balsthal
Link to the Swiss Railways (SBB) internal fire-fighting service
Link to the Basel Model Fire Brigade
Link to the P&S Competence Centre (ziko)
Link to Gasser Felstechnik AG