Luís Mestre took office, this Tuesday, January 9th, as the new commander of the Portimão Fire Department.
Current Municipal Civil Protection Coordinator of Portimão, Luís Mestre «intends to continue the project outlined by the Fire Department and the local municipality».
In his inauguration speech, the new commander defined as «guiding lines of this new mission the continuity of work that has been carried out, in a total symbiosis between Firefighters and Civil Protection, an exemplary project at national level, as a privileged format in guaranteeing a response technical and operational, with regard to the support provided to the population residing in the municipality of Portimão».
In addition to Nuno Mergulhão, president of the board of the Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Portimão, who swore in Luís Mestre, the table of honor at the ceremony was made up of the president of the Portimão City Council, the sub-regional commander of Emergency and Civil Protection of the Algarve Richard Marques, by the president of the general assembly of the Portimão Firefighters Álvaro Bila and by José Gonçalo, representative of the Algarve Firefighters Federation.
With a degree in Medical-Surgical Nursing from the Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Évora, Luís Mestre has a postgraduate degree in Risks, Planning and Civil Protection, from the Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes, and a master's degree in Risks and Civil Protection, from the Instituto Superior de Educação e Ciências from Lisbon.
External trainer at the National Fire School in the areas of rescue and extrication and medical emergency techniques (pre-hospital – ambulance crew), he is accredited by INEM as a trainer in Basic Life Support With External Automatic Defibrillator (SBVDAE) and as a trainer in medical emergency.
Among other aspects, he coordinated the internal training program at the Centro Hospitalar do Barlavento Algarvio for doctors, nurses, operational assistants, technical assistants and diagnostic technicians in the areas of Advanced Life Support, Immediate Life Support and Basic Life Support, having attended various courses, seminars and workshops, in areas such as operations planning and emergency management, fire safety, organizational management, general staff, decision support techniques, coordination systems, command and control, rural fires, urban and industrial fires , rescue and extrication, etc.
Coming from a career as a firefighter, which began in 1988 in Almodôvar, he transferred in 2003 to the Portimão fire department, where a year later he was appointed to the position of deputy commander and in 2005 to 2nd commander, being reclassified in 2010 as a firefighter officer.
Between February 1, 2001 and December 31, 2009, he served as team leader in the emergency department of the current CHUA, followed by team leader in the respective intensive care unit until May 31, 2017, in addition to other responsibilities .
From 2015 onwards, he began to perform the duties of assistant in command at the Portimão Fire Department, and since 1 June 2017, he has been a senior technician at the Municipal Civil Protection Service of Portimão, with direct responsibility for the Technical Office of Civil Protection Resources .
Throughout his professional activity, Luís Mestre received six commendations and the Distinguished Service Medal-Silver Degree, the Dedication Medal-25 years and the Altruism Medal-30 years, in addition to medals for good and effective services of 5, 10 , 15, 20 years, awarded by the Portuguese Firefighters League.
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