In the more rural areas during unfortunate peek times you may not be able to reach 991 immediately but get a “caller is busy” sound.
There is multiple reasons for it one being a lack of volunteers at the fire department due to people having to take 2nd jobs to be able to pay their bills.
Thats interesting, haven't heard about that problem yet. Didn't know that the Notrufzentralen are also staffed with volunteers. Do you think that mandatory fire brigade service (Pflichtfeuerwehr) might become more common in the next years?