St. Gaugericus Church: History & Fitness Hub

“The exercise took place in the vacant church of Pamel where we practiced evacuations at great heights, in narrow spaces and from complex structures,” the fire brigade said. “The GRIMP team is deployed when the normal fire brigade resources are insufficient to rescue and evacuate victims in difficult-to-reach places.”

These evacuations are done using ropes and other specialized equipment. A situation in which the GRIMP team is deployed is, for example, when a building or home cannot be reached with a ladder truck. The exercise attracted a lot of attention and even students from a nearby school came to take a look.

Because such setups are very technical, the team practices every month. One team is composed of five people, with each member often having a specific specialization or task. The leader can be recognized by a white helmet. The GRIMP team is composed of firefighters who work at the various stations in the fire zone. In March last year, this involved 25 members who are part of the GRIMP team and carry out these interventions in addition to their ‘normal’ fire brigade tasks.

New members

New members have joined in recent months. It was not possible to say how many people were involved. The plan was to recruit eight people over the course of 2025, just like this year, in order to reach 35 to 40 members by 2027.

Last year, training was held at the Dender in Pamel to practice scenarios such as the floods in Verviers.