Angelov: During the fire season, the Protection and Rescue Directorate will have at least 120 volunteer firefighters at its disposal

At a meeting held today between the director of the Protection and Rescue Directorate (PRD), Stojançe Angelov, and representatives of volunteer firefighter associations, an agreement was reached to put into practice the idea that during the summer, in the fire season, at least 120 volunteer firefighters will be ready every day through the PRD’s rapid response teams.

Angelov said it had been agreed that each Volunteer Firefighters Association would determine in advance a specific number of volunteers who, through the Protection and Rescue Directorate’s teams, would be ready to leave immediately for wherever intervention is needed in the event of a fire.

He said the meeting also discussed the method of internal organization, stressing that the structure would be changed entirely. According to him, instead of volunteers being engaged through the Directorate’s local branches, their involvement will be carried out through the institution’s internal organization. For this purpose, several people have been selected who, under a model similar to a military pyramid, will have the role of informing and coordinating the others.

“We reached an agreement that each Volunteer Firefighters Association should declare in advance a specific number of volunteers who, through the Protection and Rescue Directorate’s teams, will be prepared to be sent immediately to the place where they are needed in the event of a fire. We also discussed internal organization. We are completely changing the structure. Instead of volunteers being engaged through the Directorate’s local branches, we will do this through our internal organization. We have selected several people who, according to the principle of a military pyramid, will inform and coordinate the others. Simply put, if we have a major fire in the Shtip region, I will call a specific person we agreed on today and ask him to send a certain number of volunteers to the fire site. Whether it is 10, 20 or 30 people, he will organize them and send them. If it is a bigger fire, I will be able to request support from the other commanders, relatively speaking, of these units in the rapid response teams,” he said.

According to Angelov, such a system will significantly increase efficiency, as it will enable faster, simpler communication and timely internal reporting.

He stressed that his goal as director of the Directorate is for the need to involve the police and the Army in terms of human resources to be reduced to a minimum this summer. According to him, the focus should be on volunteers, most of whom are very well trained and have even greater experience, as all of them have taken part in extinguishing many fires in open areas.

“My goal as director of the Directorate is for the engagement of the police and the Army in the field of human resources to be reduced to a minimum this summer. As I have said publicly so far, we want to rely on volunteers, most of whom have excellent training and even greater experience, because all of them have taken part in extinguishing numerous fires in open areas. The engagement of volunteer firefighters instead of the engagement of the police and the Army. Of course, in the case of major fires that would threaten human lives and property, all state capacities will be at their disposal, including the police, the Army and other institutions. We are witnessing what is happening near Thessaloniki. We should ask ourselves what would happen if such a fire were to develop in our country and what would be needed to extinguish it,” he said.

Angelov also clarified that his previous statement about the daily payments received by volunteers referred to the Directorate’s rapid response teams. He underlined that volunteer firefighters do not receive any compensation.