A ladder truck, a crane truck and three firefighters who were not even on duty and who came as reinforcement. These are the material and human resources that remained this Wednesday in the fire station while the fire at the Hotel Beatriz in Costa Teguise was being extinguished. In the opinion of the manager of the Security and Emergency Consortium, Enrique Espinosa, "the resources are sufficient". However, firefighters believe that this fire highlighted the shortcomings of the corps.
"With what we had in the park, for example, we could not attend to fires, nor traffic accidents," emphasizes Oliver Torres, staff delegate of Asipal and the Workers' Commissions of the Lanzarote Fire Department. Torres, who emphasizes that he speaks "on behalf of all" his colleagues, emphasizes that "the feeling" of the Fire Department is that the situation this Wednesday highlights two shortcomings. On the one hand, he points out that the "effectiveness" of their services is being "put at stake" and, on the other hand, he adds, that "the lack of personnel is undeniable". "If people don't go outside the service, it stays as it stays," he says. He emphasizes that all of them, in such a situation, go to the service "without any doubt", but they believe that this is not ideal.
According to him, some of his colleagues even showed up at the park after hearing about the fire in the press. Specifically, after calling the guard, there were a total of 14 firefighters working, so he emphasizes that there were more colleagues who came as reinforcement (8) than those who were on duty (6).
Most of the material, in Costa Teguise
Firefighters also report that most of the material was in Costa Teguise, something that the manager of the Security and Emergency Consortium, Enrique Espinosa, also admits, although he does not believe it was an inconvenience. If another incident had occurred, Espinosa points out, the firefighters "would have left with the truck" and one of the tankers "would have left" the Hotel Beatriz.
Asked how many resources were mobilized to the hotel, the manager replies that "all" they had: "You don't know what you're going to find, normal". The firefighters reply that "it's as if the entire park had moved there". "We think that's not entirely effective."
The three fire extinguishing tankers available to the Corps were moved to the Hotel Beatriz. Espinosa believes that this would not be an inconvenience if another fire were to break out, as he assures that "almost never" is the water from the trucks used in these cases, but rather that from the establishments' intakes. The union representative contradicts him and emphasizes that "sometimes" these intakes do not work or simply do not exist. "We trust what we carry on us," he says.
"Plenty" of resources
For Espinosa, however, the Fire Department has "plenty" of resources. The manager believes that if another emergency had occurred during the fire there would have been "no problem at all". "We have more than enough trucks, we have trucks to spare," he says.
He says the same thing regarding personnel. "We asked for people to join, the corporal asked for people and there were people who did not mobilize. We had people to spare. And there were people at home waiting in case things got worse, but it calmed down," he says. "We have the resources we need. Now people are starting to retire and when they do, we will take out the positions. We always cover all the services and we have enough people to cover services," he defends.
Outrage over "privileges"
On the other hand, the union representative has also responded, "on behalf of all the colleagues", to the president of the Consortium and councilor of the Cabildo, Echedey Eugenio, who stated that the firefighters oppose the replacement pool because "they fear losing their privileges". For this representative of the firefighters, these comments are "false" and are "portraying him as a politician who does not respect his own staff".
"He is referring to the payment of overtime that we do to replace each other. Let the councilor know that the vast majority of the Fire Department does not want to be doing overtime. Let him know that the firefighters have renounced the collection of many overtime hours," he replies. Torres explains that the firefighters of the "first and second promotion" renounced in their day "many hours as a result of their work and their sacrifice so that more personnel could enter". For this reason, they ask Eugenio not to "divert the focus of attention from what we are dealing with, which is the job pool".
The firefighters do not understand the "extreme haste" in creating this replacement pool and believe that the resources could be used to "make a call for civil servants" which, says the union representative, "costs the same". Among their criticisms is the limited training to which they believe these substitute firefighters would have access, by occupying those positions in "the short or medium term".
"For example, in the Costa Teguise service, a boiler burning on a plant minus two, two plants below ground level, how do we count on a colleague who has just entered to resolve a situation of these characteristics? It is a quite critical situation. We are putting them at risk and we are putting ourselves at risk among ourselves," defends Torres. "Due to the lack of experience we cannot trust each other. It is like that. It is not that a person who enters new is better or worse, it is a matter that the years of experience are what give you professionalism," he argues.
He emphasizes, in addition, that the firefighters of Lanzarote have in their demands the support of "the opponents themselves to a permanent position". "They have been preparing for years to apply for a permanent job and they don't even see it. They see it as a lack of respect towards them. It costs an average of 6 to 10 years to prepare for a firefighter opposition and now you offer them an eventual position. This makes no sense."
