Solak: Every municipality in BiH must get a professional fire brigade

Several locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina are currently burning. A dangerous fire near Trebinje has been brought under control, and firefighters have managed to contain the blaze on Mount Prenj near Mostar. Several smaller fires are burning near Rudo, Gacko... Firefighters estimate that they will ultimately emerge as victors.

Director of the Federal Administration for Civil Protection Fahrudin Solak told the news agency Patria that Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a country as threatened by fires as Croatia or Montenegro, but fires in BiH still cause hundreds of thousands of marks in damage each year, so BiH must also start investing more seriously in firefighters.

First and foremost, says Solak, these heroes need to be provided with equipment, professional training, and laws must be adjusted to their needs. BiH also needs a larger number of firefighters, at least those who will do this job professionally.
Only during last year's floods did BiH firefighters show how much this society needs them.

- Firefighters are not just people who extinguish fires – says Solak.

- They are people who respond during floods, in cases of serious traffic accidents... So, firefighters are people we need in every crisis situation. Well, since that is the case, then you must provide these people with adequate working conditions – says Solak, adding that the better equipped and more capable the firefighters are, the greater the safety of citizens will be.

Some municipalities in BiH, says Solak, have no professional firefighters at all, and existing laws, at least in the Federation, prevent the Federal Civil Protection from responding to crisis situations in local communities. Thus, an entire municipality can be in the grip of a fire, but the Federal Administration for Civil Protection cannot come to help because it is not a natural disaster affecting the entire Federation, but only one municipality, writes Patria.