Algarve fire service ignores national order

Paul Rees 11 December 2018

Firefighter The Algarve’s 17 firefighting corporations have decided to ignore an order from their national league and will continue to report their call-outs to the National Civil Protection Authority.

The national Portuguese Firemen's League, led by Jaime Marta Soares, announced on Saturday that the country's firefighters no longer will be reporting what they are up to, to their Disaster Relief Operations Commanders at the Civil Protection Authority, in protest at rule changes made by the Government.

The Portuguese Firemen’s League wants to see a national fire department that is, "autonomous, independent and with its own budget," and has nothing to do with reporting to the National Civil Protection Authority whose competence it questions.

According to Soares, the Government has presented a proposal that was, "completely unadjusted to the reality of the country," one that, "will interfere in the autonomy of the firemen's associations."

On 22 November, the Algarve Fire Federation explained in a statement, that the new national legislation, "does not correspond to the legitimate expectations and wishes of our firefighters and volunteer firefighters, which may cause and aggravate their lack of motivation.”

The Algarve firefighters then participated in a national rally in Lisbon and seemed solidly behind their national federation.

But the Algarve region's sturdy Bombeiros have decided to ignore the decision of their national body and will continue to report incidents to Civil Protection, "bearing in mind the superior interest of the protection of lives and property."

Comments

0 #4 Chip 2018-12-12 18:32

I say Well Done Algarve Bombeiros!

+2 #3 liveaboard 2018-12-12 08:32

The bombeiros command is notoriously corrupt; at the same time, they do get a difficult and essential job done.
That makes this an important and complex issue.

-2 #2 Bush Tuckerman 2018-12-12 08:30

This will see saw back and forth until the fire season starts but again illustrates a common thread in ADN posts - backwardness in Portuguese Public Administration. So much of its values and attitudes still rooted in the dark days of the dictatorship where control of the low life Portuguese scum was the only priority. Universally seen in the drive to archive crimes "before sun down" even when now dealing with unwanted foreigners.
The tragedy of the incompetent NZ/UK cliff death PJ investigation that spoke to no-one but the beach cleaner yet journos effortlessly finding possible witnesses reminding us of the idiotically flawed post mortem of an Aussie woman a few years back. Alleged to be a suicide but her corpse shipped back with obvious defensive stabbing wounds on her arms!

+5 #1 nogin the nog 2018-12-11 21:09

hmm
About time someone had the guts to stand up to the incompetence running this country..

Refresh comments list

You must be a registered user to make comments.
Please register here to post your comments.

JComments