Fire brigades grappling with equipment shortages after protracted flood relief
Ljubljana, 30 August - In the wake of a report about firefighters involved in flood rescue and relief efforts running out of equipment and funds to replenish it, Defence Minister Marjan Šarec has rushed to guarantee that all fire brigades will be reimbursed fully and in due time.
Celje
Firefighting equipment.
Photo: Urška Kristan Kastner/STA
Reportedly asking the fire departments to immediately order all needed equipment, Šarec is confident they will receive the funds from the government in line with procedure before the payment of the receipts is due.
It was the firefighters from Prevalje - a town in the northern region of Koroška, which was heavily hit by the early-August floods - that rang the alarm bell on Tuesday, having been unable to provide adequate rescue support in repeated flooding due to a shortage of water pumps.
They said that a lot of equipment and protective clothing had been worn out, ruined or damaged substantially in the past month. Their estimate of the total cost of rescue and assistance efforts since the beginning of August is now around half a million euros.
Emergency purchases of hoses, submersible pumps, suits and boots alone would currently cost around EUR 122,000, they said, arguing they had reimbursement pledges but no instructions on how to proceed.
Defence Minister Šarec has responded by explaining that the activation of the national protection and rescue plan, during which it is not yet possible to take stock of costs, would be lifted on Thursday.
He urged fire departments to immediately report the costs via the system that was streamlined during last year's wildfires in the Karst region, upon which the government will lay out and execute an equitable reimbursement plan.
The minister asserted that the funds would be on the brigades' accounts before the payment of the receipts for the equipment required immediately was due.
While labelling demands for advance payments by suppliers as unacceptable, Šarec warned that delivery times for individual equipment on the market were long and called on the Firefighters' Association of Slovenia to play its role as an umbrella organisation.
The association's head Franci Petek told the STA that equipment was indeed running short and that the association was in contact with individual brigades. It helps with relocating firefighters and providing equipment, however only if the brigades turn to it for help, which had not been the case for Prevalje, he said.
Petek said that all basic equipment was being provided, but that some brigades were indeed lacking some "major things". This however cannot be solved by the umbrella association or immediately by the state but by cooperation among the brigades themselves, he added.