Several thousand firefighters from all over Spain demonstrated in Madrid to demand the approval of a framework law for coordination and denounce the lack of coordination who suffer from tragedies such as the recent DANA due to the lack of this regulation, whose approval is blocked.
The demonstration brought together thousands of firefighters and citizens, summoned by the Unitary Coordinator of Professional Firefighters (CUBP) and marched from the fountain Juan de Villanuevain the capital’s Parque del Oeste, to the vicinity of the Congress of Deputies.
The protest always had very present to the victims of DANA and upon reaching the end of the route, a minute of silence was observed as a tribute.
Behind the head of the march, a large Valencian flag was carried and the demonstration ended with the firefighters on their knees and with their helmets in their hands, around it, while the anthem of that autonomous community played.
Large orange balloons had the names of towns written on them like Alfafar, Paiporta, Utiel, or Algemesí and phrases like “thank you volunteers.”
The president of the CUBP, Israel Navesohas indicated before the start that they have been demanding this Framework Law for the Coordination of Extinction and Rescue Services for ten years.
“Unfortunately today marks one month since the DANA in Valencia and it has been shown – he said – that everything that we had warned all the political groups has occurred”, that in the event that there were an incident of that type “they were not going to have the capacity, neither the regional nor the state administration can coordinate all the fire services in this country.
Naveso recalled that there were more than 22,000 firefighters and that they wanted to go to work in the first hours of the catastrophe but that They didn’t let them.
The problem is that “since the current tools did not work, they had to go unofficially, something that puts us in danger when we are working in the event of an accident,” he said, “and also the citizens because “You cannot give them the service they deserve.”
Naveso, megaphone in hand, addressed the participants when they arrived at their destination to thank them for their applause. “the thousands and thousands of citizens” who had demonstrated at their side and added that they had no words to thank them for the reinforcement they were giving them.
The head of the CUBP has indicated that the demonstration was a “cry of discontent” and a demand for politicians to approve a coordination law that would have allowed the displacement of 4,000 firefighters in the first hours of the incident” by DANA.
And he has pointed out that the citizens, with their presence, what “They are saying loud and strong, it’s over” with “the incompetence of our politicians”, with “the lack of coordination when the life of the population is at stake” or with “the political use of death to obtain electoral benefits.”
![photographer: Jorge Paris Hernandez[[[PREVISIONES 20M]]]topic: Special Dana Valencia. PAIPORTA. Candles. Tribute to DANA victims](https://imagenes.20minutos.es/uploads/imagenes/2024/11/30/fotografo-jorge-paris-hernandez-previsiones-20m-tema-especial-dana-valencia-paiporta-velas-homenaje-victimas-de-la-dana-14.jpeg)
The demonstration, which had begun about two hours earlier, was opened by a banner with the motto “Firefighters for and for the citizens” and the troops who had arrived from all over Spain were organized to march in groups through autonomous communities, with banners with slogans such as “Firefighters are citizens” or “Coordination law now.”
A rule that remains stagnant after the previous legislature could not make it through the amendment period. Naveso has indicated that it is “It is evident that there is a bureaucratic blockadeand the parties are not able to agree to pass this law.
For this reason, he told the press before the start of the march that they see with sadness how, at this moment, they are dedicating themselves “to throw things at one’s head and they are forgetting that there are tools that they have the obligation to use” so that, if a tragedy occurs, the response is different.
Firefighters remember that The coordination framework law was registered in Congress for the first time in 2018 and that could have qualitatively improved the response of rescue and emergency teams to the catastrophe created by DANA.
The CUBP regrets, in a statement, that the political blockade of this law continues to compromise citizen safety, since in many emergencies the nearest fire station cannot act, but rather the one that corresponds to the affected area; which lengthens intervention times and dangerously deteriorates the protection services provided by firefighters.
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