Thursday, December 29, 2022 | 3:14 p.m.
The Council of Federations of Volunteer Firefighters of the Argentine Republic issued a harsh statement, where they “categorically” repudiated the statements of the Vice Minister of Environment of the Nation, Sergio Federovisky, as “malicious and unfounded.”
It is that in a recent live interview on a national television channel, the official attacked the country’s Volunteer Firefighters system and assured that they are asking the provinces to “deactivate the idea of using volunteer firefighters for forest fires.”
Federovisky said: “The two systems coexist, the forest brigade members who are not volunteers, until 2019 they all had junk contracts and we laundered them. The volunteer firefighters are a separate chapter and we ask the provinces to start deactivating the idea of using them for this type of fires, because they are fought in another way, fires are not put out with water but from the ground with tools such as firewalls or trying to bring the fire to a dead zone”, and he expanded: “Volunteer firefighters are only prepared to put out a fire in a building, a house, is another logic”.
“Argentina has a Constitution of 1994 and says that natural resources are the domain of the provinces. This means that the provinces have the legitimacy and right to exploit their resources as they want. But that has a responsibility attached to those resources. The law of fire management says that the responsibility of fighting forest fires belongs to the provinces that are the owners of resources. Therefore, if the provinces see their situation overwhelmed, they ask the national State to collaborate. There are provinces such as Neuquén and Río Negro that are enough itself and ask for resources when they need it, and other provinces that unfortunately still do not have the muscle and training to understand that this is an issue that is here to stay,” he declared.
The definitions in the journalistic program led to the immediate repudiation of the Council of Federations of Volunteer Firefighters, an organization from which they stated that Federovisky “intended to question the honor, professionalism and dedication to service of the volunteer firefighters of Argentina.”
In line with that, they called for a “national siren blast” for tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., which will also be replicated in various locations in Misiones.
The full statement:
The Council of Federations of Volunteer Firefighters of the Argentine Republic, as the only representative institution before the national and international public powers of the interests of the 58 thousand men and women that make up the National System of Volunteer Firefighters (SNBV), through the Law National 25,054, we need to clarify some issues about its formation and operation.
As a first measure, the institution has issued a RESOLUTION where specific actions of the System are articulated in response to these declarations, for next December 29 and 30.
Secondly, and in the words of the president of the Council, Carlos Alfonso, “it is unfortunate the lack of knowledge poured out by the vice minister about the National System of Volunteer Firefighters, which has been in existence for 138 years, through his statements” at the same time who stressed that “we have the doors open to receive you and discuss academic, operational and economic issues regarding the functionality of the System”.
In addition, he pointed out that “for the honor and courage of the more than 58,000 men and women who dedicate their time to this beautiful vocation of service, the vice minister considers retracting his statements.”
Regarding the experienced, relevant and professional action of the Volunteer Firefighters in the fight against forest fires, as a force that is about to celebrate 140 years of existence, it should be noted that in 2022 there were a total of 81,807 fires of which 43,069 were forest fires according to the Single Registry of Firefighters (RUBA). This means that 53% of the fires attended by the Volunteer Firefighters during the year were forest fires.
Through the National Fire Academy (ANB), Volunteer Firefighters from all over the country are constantly trained in various operational specialties that include, among 19 specialties, forest fires. Through face-to-face and virtual, national and international courses, our firefighters and firefighters are permanently trained with the various resources of technical training based on competencies from their entry to their transfer to reserve or retirement.
We can proudly point out that many of the forest brigade members that make up the National Fire Management Plan, as is also the case with other security forces, completed their training in fighting forest fires as Volunteer Firefighters, through the ANB and the regional and federative training schools.
Our System also has the Single Operations Coordination (CUO) whose objective is to ensure the effective participation of the Provincial Federations of Volunteer Firefighters of the Argentine Republic in circumstances of maximum alert and/or disasters at the national and international level. Through CUO, the orderly and systematic mobilization of the Brigades of the National System of Volunteer Firefighters to the place of emergency is guaranteed, as has happened in emblematic cases such as the Forest Fires in Corrientes in February 2022 or recently in Salta.
Regarding the financing of the System, the aforementioned National Law 25,054 establishes that “the subsidy to the associations that are members of the voluntary firefighter system of the Argentine Republic will be formed with a mandatory contribution of five per thousand (5‰) of the insurance premiums except those of the life branch, in charge of the insurers”. The proceeds, which are distributed to the National Council, the ANB, the Enforcement Authority and second and third degree entities (provincial associations and federations) must be submitted to the Enforcement Authority for exhaustive control, as explained in article 13 of the law “will be a matter of competence of the General Audit of the Nation the subsequent external control of the budgetary, economic, financial, patrimonial and legal management; of the funds assigned by this law as a subsidy and that correspond to the planned contribution in article 11”.
Without further ado, we take the opportunity to highlight the work of the men and women who are perfected and trained every day to give their best in emergencies, without schedules or fees.
