More benefits can help mitigate lack of volunteer firefighters – commanders

Fire brigade commanders of Portugal’s centre region districts of Pedrógão Grande, Figueiró dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pera – the worst affected by the fires of June 17, 2017, have warned of the lack of volunteer firefighters, demanding more social benefits. At the round table “Firefighters, 7 years on, in the districts of Pedrógão Grande, Castanheira de Pera and Figueiró dos Vinhos” – one of the initiatives marking the anniversary of the fires – the commander of Figueiró dos Vinhos insisted on a national regulation of benefits for volunteer firefighters. The message coming out of the roundtable was that too many young people are being ‘lost’ to urban centres, and ‘never coming back’ to the rural interior, leaving it increasingly vulnerable in so many ways.