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SFRS depot network is in critical condition – funding is needed immediately – Society and politics – News

“Already in 2008, the government of that time decided to support the construction, reconstruction and purchase of equipment for a new SFRS depot, planning to allocate 200 million lats to it. Due to the crisis, the plans were postponed. It has been 12 years, but the government is delaying financial support. Currently, the situation is so critical that the renovation of the depot infrastructure must be done immediately, it can no longer be done gradually. We must not allow the situation to recur in 2011, when the fire station building in Skrunda collapsed in order to finally start acting, ”says Aleksandrs Babra, Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Fire Safety Association.

The association supports the plan developed by the Minister of the Interior Sands Ģirģens to arrange SFRS infrastructure – to build or renovate 50 depots in 49 Latvian cities within five years, as well as considers a modern vision of construction of several standard module depots, where several the services of the Ministry and the Emergency Medical Service and also the Municipal Police. This project would not only be functional and in line with modern world rescuers’ practices, but would also be energy efficient and meet the highest European environmental standards.

Statistics from recent years show that the workload of rescuers is only increasing. Therefore, in Latvia it is important to strengthen internal security by ensuring appropriate working conditions for rescuers. Infrastructure is a crucial factor when it comes to responding to rescuing people. It is not acceptable that part of the SFRS buildings are morally and technically obsolete and prolong the speed of departure to the call point, as well as are not suitable for storage of machinery and equipment.

During the last five years, only six new depot construction projects have been implemented in Ape, Ērgļi, Skrunda, Valka, Smiltene and Rīga, which are not able to solve the dilapidated infrastructure problems. In addition, according to the association, the state’s attitude towards such an important rescue area can be judged by the fact that more than 100 ZIL vehicles, which are in some ways environmentally harmful, fuel “cemeteries”, have a maximum speed of 70-80 km. per hour and is not technically equipped with modern rescue equipment. In a situation where every second counts, an outdated fleet limits the opportunities to fully perform service functions and make full use of the professionalism of rescuers.

In the opinion of the association, it would be important to use the support of European funds for the implementation of such a large project. The current issue is the government’s political decision to apply for a project and receive funding from the European Recovery and Sustainability Mechanism.

The Latvian Fire Safety Association was founded in 2002, and it unites about 30 leading Latvian and international firefighting and fire safety service companies, as well as cooperates with many public organizations. It participates in several ministerial and cross-sectoral working groups.

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