The Algarve now has, since yesterday, Sunday, 38 Permanent Intervention Teams (EIP). These nearly four dozen teams were the ones that were destined to be born, but regional emergency and civil protection officials want to create more in the future, in order to reinforce the readiness of all Volunteer Firefighters in the region, every day and anytime.
The guarantee was given to the Sul Informação by Vítor Vaz Pinto, regional commander of emergency and civil protection, on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the protocol for the creation of the 38th and, for now, last EIP that will be born in the region, belonging to the Humanitarian Association of Firefighters of Faro Portuguese Cross.
The formalization of this team took place on the day that the Faro volunteer fire brigade – the Algarve capital also has a Municipal Fire Brigade –, celebrated its centenary, at a party that was attended by Patrícia Gaspar, Secretary of State for Civil Protection .
«This is the only one that still needed to be filed, of the 38 that were already planned. The Chamber of Faro there was a legal impediment there, which did not allow him to sign the protocol at the same time as the other Permanent Intervention Teams», explained Vaz Pinto.
«We have the objective of providing all fire departments with a minimum force of professional intervention, so that they can respond promptly, given the vulnerabilities and risks existing in their territory, and not have to be sounding the siren, to join the elements , to help afterwards», added the regional commander.
It was this objective that was achieved in Faro, where the new EIP, the second of the corporation, ensures «a response capacity seven days a week, 24 hours a day», according to Jorge Carmo, commander of the Fire Department of Faro Portuguese Cross.
In the remaining Algarve corporations, Commander Vaz Pinto told our newspaper, “this objective is also being achieved. In most fire brigades in the Algarve, we already have three teams of this nature».
Each EIP has five elements, who receive specific training and have to meet certain requirements to join the team.
«They have permanent and professional training and their abilities are checked on a regular basis», he added.
Creating more groups of firefighters of this type, something that Vaz Pinto confirms is an intention, depends, to a large extent, on the municipalities, since the financing of the EIP is guaranteed, in equal parts (50%-50%) by the City Councils and by the central administration, through the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection.
“The entity that owns the fire department does not pay anything. This project is aimed only at the Humanitarian Associations of Firefighters», that is, at voluntary firefighters, concluded Vítor Vaz Pinto.
This is also a way of guaranteeing that members of Humanitarian Associations of Firefighters have access to professional training and stable remuneration.
“Providing dignified and fairly paid careers for our firefighters must be our top priority. Valuing human resources is of paramount importance», concluded Steven Piedade, president of the now centenary Humanitarian Association of Firefighters of Faro Cruz Lusa, which has 55 firefighters.
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