With the failures of the current system beamed across television news every night, the League of Portuguese Firefighters has come up with proposals on how to improve the country’s fire-fighting methodology.
League president António Nunes has already had a short meeting with President Marcelo on the subject today, and the plan is for him to return to Belém Palace next week, with the full ‘how to fix it’ list.
Nunes has already criticised the current system, brought in by PS Socialists, saying he knows the AD government of Luís Montenegro want to ditch it, but feels they have not had the courage, up until now.
With the wildfire inferno of the last few weeks, Nunes is confident he will be ‘preaching to willing converts’.
Speaking to reporters after the short meeting with Marcelo today, Nunes stressed that “firefighters need autonomy just as other civil protection agents need autonomy. Civil protection is as essential in Portugal as firefighters are. We simply cannot confuse civil protection with direct command of firefighters.”
Nunes added that proposals have been presented in the past, “but perhaps there was no opportunity to put them into practice.”
“Portuguese firefighters belong to humanitarian firefighting associations or municipal councils, and therefore, we must have a system that allows, in crisis situations like the one we are experiencing, to combine everyone’s efforts so that the country can resist and overcome crises,” he said, adding that during today’s meeting, Marcelo wanted to convey “a vote of great confidence” in firefighters, saying “they are essential to resolving serious situations like those the country is experiencing.”
Source material: Lusa
