Four operatives and two ambulances from the Espinho Fire Department are, since this Tuesday, 1st of August, helping the Albufeira Fire Department. In the summer, the operational activity in the municipality is «a crazy thing» and the «awareness that we are not enough for the dimension of the service» led to the request for this help that allows «strengthening the pre-hospital response capacity».
António Coelho, commander of the Albufeira Fire Department, explained to Sul Informação that the good relations between the two corporations were born in the «training that elements from all over the country do and where communication channels are created».
At first, António Coelho thought of asking for reinforcements from the Fire Departments in the Algarve, where there is less activity. But, he explained, "I realized that the region is exhausted and we all have a great operational commitment."
From there, this hypothesis arose from the Espinho Firefighters, in the North of Portugal, who «soon gave a positive response».
"We have been alerting the supervisory entities and the National Emergency Medical Institute (INEM) and the National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC) to the growth of the population in the Algarve, but unfortunately it was not possible to resolve the issue with these structures." said the commander.
Is that "we have very brutal things happening", he considered.
«In Albufeira, the Fire Department has all its staff committed to ensuring the various response devices, firefighting, relief and rescue, and is unable to respond with more pre-hospital emergency means than those registered with the INEM, being insufficient for the occurrences that occur and in terms of assistance to the needs of the population of Albufeira at this time of year».
The teams will be mixed, joining operational from Albufeira with others from Espinho. The ambulances «will be activated from the Fire Department of Albufeira by INEM – Guidance Center for Urgent Patients».
At least until 3 September, these firefighters from Espinho will stay in Albufeira. Afterwards, the two corporations will "make an assessment, to see if it is necessary to maintain or demobilize only one ambulance, for example."
In addition to these means, the Fire Department of Albufeira still has at its disposal two emergency motorcycles for these coming weeks to be a lot of work.
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