Firefighters’ pleas for help in getting new equipment seem to fall on deaf ears.
The heroic firemen who successfully fought the blazes on Makarska riviera earlier this week have publicly spoken out about the dire circumstances they are currently working in, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on June 22, 2017.
This morning, the firemen from Podgora published a post on their Facebook page, explaining they have to make do with extremely old fire-fighting vehicles, some of them manufactured 30 or 40 years ago. The firefighting department appealed to local authorities multiple times, to no avail. According to the article and their post, they were provided with a new vehicle after this week’s fires, but it remained in their possession only for a couple of days and was then taken back without much explanation. An understandable reason for the whole department to get even more frustrated, and they’re now sharing their troubles with the public online and urging everyone to share the post to draw attention to this shameful situation.
Here’s a translation of the original post:
“Hmm… [we’re being called] HEROES, SUPERHEROES, SUPERMEN, only the best – but we’re actually NAIVE, because the feeling all of us had yesterday is the same feeling everyone has at least once in their life, and that’s the one when someone gives you an icecream and after a minute takes it away and throws it on the ground.
We finally had the chance to get into our vehicle without fearing we’re not going to make it to the fire in time, or that the brake will lock or fall apart, or that the engine will shut down along the way, but those dreams and that chance disappeared in a second… The vehicle was here shortly, had a loving home and plans for the future for 3 days, until (as usual) politics and power-holders got involved.
It’s hard to find polite words when curses are all you can think of. The pain and the fury we feel is too heavy because us FOOLS (I mean HEROES) have to keep working under stress while we wait for a new blaze and a new adventure that will have someone’s SON, FATHER, BOYFRIEND, BROTHER, HUSBAND behind the wheel of a vehicle even a pilot of Canadair [fire-fighting aircraft] wouldn’t know how to drive. Our youngest truck (a baby) was born in 1981 and lives as an old man today. Some will say we don’t take care of them, I say: how to expect a football player to be in the same shape at 25 and 50 years? You can maintain the looks, but not the heart and the soul.
We’re volunteers, we don’t ask for anything, we won’t make you any profit, there’s no splitting 50-50 with us, we just want an honest ‘thank you’ and, most importantly, to be provided with the minimum we require – normal conditions at work.
We’re not paid and we’re not asking for money, we just want you to show you see us and appreciate us. There’s a photo with firemen from Podgora sleeping that says we’re dreaming with clean conscience, while we’re falling asleep hoping that out dreams will come true one day. We don’t have a reason to be ashamed, YOU have no shame at all, so shame on YOU!
THANK YOU!
Firefighters Podgora / YOUR HEROES
SHARE!”
The post is accompanied by a couple of photos of their outdated vehicles, including a video of a truck that needed to be manually pushed in order to get the engine running again. One of the firemen who wanted to remain anonymous told the reporters from Slobodna Dalmacija they are prepared to always give 100%, and that they have the will and the physical strength, but can’t keep fighting with the equipment they currently have at hand.
Here’s the original post:
