Diogo Baptista / Lusa
“At this time, the management of human resources of volunteer firefighters is not being done.” Census stopped last year.
Os fires They are scaring in various parts of the country and the situation of firefighters, as it happens in summer, becomes the subject again.
It is not known how many firefighters there are in Portugal. In 2023, there were almost 32,000 firefighters. But however the census was no longer National of Portuguese Firefighters, namely at the end of last year, in December 2024.
This system is managed by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (Anepc) and has the registration of firefighters, their personal record, their formations, hours provided, promotions, punishments…
That is, without this updated record, it is not known how many firefighters there are, and Qualifications are not known From each one, he stresses the.
“At this moment we do not know effectively how many firefighters exist. I estimated”, Admits António Nunes, president of the Portuguese Firefighters League (LBP).
Now the record is made with a sheet and the firefighters call each other.
“At this time, the human resources management of volunteer firefighters is not being done,” says António Nunes.
“For exampleif you want to know if a firefighter has the course of tuning, I don’t know. I have to call The commander, who will ask him and he says he has, which can be true or false, ”he adds.
Anepc said firefighters that the “Computer System imploded”. The government ensures that it is a priority to replenish the system.
“We must find one million euros to make a new product and migrate data from side to side,” says António Nunes – but only in 2026 the system should return.
The lack of reception It is not affecting The fight against fires, but may affect, warns the president of LBP.
In 12 years, the number of firefighters in Portugal dropped 21%. AND It is difficult to capture volunteer firefighters: “Fifteen years ago, it has been a firefighter with 45 or 50 hours of formation, now they needed 150. One month was gone and a month was a firefighter, now one must wait a year. Therefore, legislators, perhaps, trying to introduce some additional factors to our firefighters, also created a set of negative bureaucratic factors.” And there are also fewer and fewer candidates for volunteering.
Even so, guarantees the president of the League, There is no shortage of firefighters in the fight against fires. Some works done in the barracks are no longer done.
“Dispensers workers”
However, the Association of Security and Civil Protection Technicians has already asked the boss to I’m sorry you’re sorry os workers who are Volunteer Firefighters.
“I left the alert: Please dispense with employees who are firefighters. Many corporations need renew The people ”, warns Jorge Silva, in.
The vice president of the association says that several companies “They are not dismissing their volunteer firefighters to be able to reinforce the barracks. ”The bosses claim that There are “priority services” And don’t let the workers come out.
This obstacle is currently at all in the Centro region, from Coimbra to Aveiro.
