JELD-WEN employees bring fire safety to the workplace and beyond

By living out our JELD-WEN value of building businesses ethically and safely, employees embrace safety as a personal mission, one they not only bring to JELD-WEN, but also to their local communities.

In Estonia and Austria, many of our associates volunteer with local fire brigades.

The following three employees are examples of how employees in Estonia and Austria use their fire brigade training and dedication to enhance safety in their communities and strengthen our safety-first culture at JELD-WEN.

The fire brigade training helps these team members bring fire safety expertise to JELD-WEN operations and cultivates a safety-first culture, bringing security to the spaces that touch our lives.

Mariliis Udeküll, accounting assistant at JELD-WEN’s Rakvere, Estonia site, is a volunteer at Kadrina Fire Brigade Society’s women’s squad. She has spent years educating young students about fire prevention and household safety, instilling habits that reduce risks both at home and in the workplace.

Mariliis said, “The availability of knowledge I have from volunteering at the fire brigade gives me the confidence that I could handle a fire safety issue if it were to arise.”

As Commander of the Hohenau an der March Volunteer Fire Brigade, Philipp Kuril, supply chain work preparation lead in Gänserndorf, Austria, brings 18 years of emergency management expertise to his leadership role at JELD-WEN.

His brigade experience, which includes navigating high-risk scenarios and maintaining team discipline, informs his approach to workplace safety.

At JELD-WEN, Philipp applies his fire service training to reinforce zero-accident initiatives, ensuring employees operate with the same level of caution and preparedness that firefighters practice in life-threatening situations.

Also at our Gänserndorf facility, Matthias Geibel, technical sales expert, has been a member of the local fire brigade for more than 20 years.

For Matthias, he sees the team elements of the fire brigade as similar to JELD-WEN – “Through fire service, we create a culture of trust through training and team building, in the same way that we do at JELD-WEN. Without trust in each other, neither JELD-WEN nor the fire service can effectively and safely meet challenges”

At JELD-WEN, safety is a core value that defines how we work. These employees exemplify how a professional commitment to safety can evolve into a personal mission—one that protects communities, strengthens teamwork, and ultimately, saves lives in and out of the workplace.