The firefighters of the Algarve met last Wednesday, March 30, and said they were concerned about the impact that the increase in fuel costs could have on the operations of corporations.
In a note sent to the press, the Firefighters Federation of the district of Faro, who says she is “fed up with having her hand outstretched”, expressed her “great concern and apprehension about the near future with regard to ensuring the main activities”.
“If the situation does not change, the need to ration services begins to be envisaged, which implies that the transport of some people for consultations or treatments, the so-called non-urgent transport, may no longer be carried out”, they say.
The Algarve firefighters appeal to the Government to “look at the precarious situation that many associations are experiencing with serious operating difficulties, a situation that has worsened significantly in the last two years and now also with the situation of the conflict in Ukraine”.
«The repercussions that this situation can have on the day to day of firefighters is very serious», they consider.
According to the data exposed by this federation, the increase in fuel costs, “to which the necessary updating of the contributions of the National Health Service for the transport of patients, has not been updated since 2012, with a cost then set at 0,51, XNUMX€/kilometre, a situation incomparable with the costs practiced today and that needs an urgent update».
These associations recall that they survive “from the good relationship they maintain with local authorities, without any type of positive differentiation on the part of the Government, not even during the last two years in which the country was devastated by the pandemic”.
The position of the Federation of Firefighters of the district of Faro is in line with what has also been defended by the Portuguese Fire Brigade, which calls for measures such as the «extension of measures applicable to taxis and public transport, authorization for the use of professional diesel, the return of VAT on fuel to humanitarian associations of firefighters or updating the values established per kilometer traveled in the transport activity of urgent and non-urgent patients».
Finally, the Algarve Firefighters Federation appeals to the Government to consolidate «a true and worthy career that gives prestige to the noble mission of these professionals through the Professional and Volunteer Firefighter Statute, as well as the clear definition of hierarchical roles and responsibilities in the scale of protection and assistance to populations”.
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