Timely rescue in fires is possible with the presence of state, voluntary and local fire brigades - Nikolai Chechotkin
Chairman of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Mykola Chechotkin during the Forum “Ukraine 30. Safe community” spoke about the prospects of creating volunteer firefighter wives in Ukraine.
Every year, more than 40 thousand fires occur in rural areas, which kill up to a thousand people, and this is more than half of the total number of deaths in fires throughout Ukraine. This is a difficult situation due to the lack of an extensive system of state, voluntary and local fire brigades in rural areas.
At the same time, the units of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine cover considerable distances to reach the most remote settlement, sometimes they lose more than 45 minutes.
“The experience of European countries shows that prompt arrival and timely assistance to victims of fires are achieved by the presence of state, voluntary and local fire teams. For example, in Austria, 624 thousand state and volunteer firefighters are involved, which is 7% of the population. On the other hand, in Ukraine we have more than 80,000 firefighters, which is 0.2 of the population,” said Mykola Chechotkin.
The head of the State Emergency Service said that in most European countries the number of voluntary fire and rescue units is about 80%, and state - 20% and stressed the need to implement the European model in Ukraine.
“To do this, communities need to focus their efforts on building local voluntary fire protection as the primary link in responding to all kinds of challenges. For each AHG, the ambitious goal should be the creation of such a number of fire brigades to ensure access to the most remote settlement in 20 minutes, and later in 10 minutes,” said Nikolai Chechotkin.
Currently, 1,200 local fire departments and 1180 volunteer fire brigades operate in rural areas. In order to provide a 20-minute commute, more than a thousand such units are required.
According to the head of the State Emergency Service, one of the most important initiatives was the creation of security centers in territorial communities, combining fire and rescue, law enforcement and medical functions. Today there are 36 such centers in Ukraine.
Recall that the sixteenth Center for Security of Citizens has been launched in Donetsk region.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
PHOTO by Andriy Novitskogo
