The Civil Protection Association (APROSOC) said this Thursday that the “fund diversion” for World Youth Day (WYD) will cause restrictions in the fight against rural fires “that need to be taken care of.”
“The association is convinced that the device installed for the event will “distract essential personnel to prevent and control rural fires in the event of accidents,” he said in a statement.
“Reinforcement of this event by mobile stations from the CIRESP network [ Sistema Integrado de Redes de Emergência e Segurança de Portugal] removes these funds from the theaters of war that take place during the week before, during and after World Youth Day, situations which, despite the strengthening of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, could create serious restrictions on relief operations,” the statement reads. signed note by APROSOC President Joao Paulo Saraiva.
While confident that the National Emergency and Civil Protection Administration (ANEPC) and other organizations involved “will do everything possible to minimize the disastrous consequences of this diversion of funds”, the association fears “that current planning, even impromptu, will not will be able to avoid serious restrictions that need to be taken care of.
The WDM civil protection structure could have 25,000 firefighters, the ANEPC president said on Wednesday, ensuring that the device would be independent of funds allocated to fight rural fires.
In an interview with reporters, Duarte Costa said that 25,000 firefighters are part of the voluntary fire brigades.
“The replenishment of funds is being prepared. There is the first structure that has already been programmed, planned and financed in order to be able to act,” the ANEPC president said, adding that the Civil Protection apparatus could include up to 25,000 firefighters and up to 2,000 agents of other forces. which “will act only in what will be necessary for each of the directions of efforts and tensions.”
Duarte Costa claimed that the ANEPC had prepared “a stealthy device that will accomplish its mission with enough description not to cause panic”, but that if more funds were to be used, it had already secured government guarantees, both in terms of funding and force.
According to the official, the government’s funding has a base of about half a million euros, but “this is just an indicative budget that is not closed and is not final.”
Since the WYD, which runs from August 1 to 6, coincides with the most critical period of rural fires, the president of ANEPC said that it is necessary to “reconcile two complex situations that were days and a device” for fires.
ANEPC has sought help from other fire departments and INEM to respond to WYD, which will have an “aggregated and reinforced” device, Duarte Costa said.
“We are not going to dismantle any device from one area to launch into another. We currently have two devices. A folding device for rural fires that is stationary and does not change, and on the other hand, we had to build another device associated with the WDM,” he explained.
Considered the biggest event of the Catholic Church, WYD will take place from 1 to 6 August in Lisbon and is expected to be attended by about 1.5 million people.
This year the event will be attended by Pope Francis, who will be in Portugal from 2 to 6 August.
The WYD in Lisbon was originally scheduled for 2022 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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