FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
Fire prevention culture must be introduced into every school, every state institution, every building permit and urban planning of every village, city or tourist area...
The Albanian government should look into the possibility of a national plan for the battle with fires, which with climate change will be an increasingly difficult challenge. The battle with fires is not won in August. No matter how many heroic firefighters we have – who in fact are untrained and ill-equipped – no matter how many planes or helicopters we get, we will not be able to succeed. The battle with fires must become not only a national culture, but also a national strategy.
First, Albania must urgently look into the possibility of a major investment to make its mountains passable with emergency roads. I am not talking about paved or paved roads for cars, but wide emergency roads that describe, according to a fire study, the lines where a fire should be blocked whenever it breaks out. The Albanian mountains are among the most impenetrable in Europe. The mountains of the south are almost roadless, while the mountains of the north once had several roads built by the mining industry, which have certainly been degraded, but the trace exists. These roads need to be revitalized urgently, while in the south a professional project is needed to build roads that describe the mountain sides. Simple roads, opened with excavators, that serve as a fire belt and as an ambush where firefighters can confront the fire.
Secondly, in every village and city, as it was during the communist era, the famous “fire belt” must be restored – a belt stripped of vegetation and vulnerable to vehicles and people that separates the inhabited centers from the forest. This does not require much investment. We have simply forgotten that we used to have it in every village and city. There are cities where traces of this belt can still be seen, especially in those abandoned and unused for construction. Don’t expect to see it in Vlora, Durrës or Saranda, but in Delvinë or Rrogozhina you can find it somewhere.
On the other hand, a clear strategy of water resources is needed for fires, and reservoirs and lakes should be built where possible, on the sides of mountains. From now on, the battle with fires will be annual and increasingly fierce. It is the new war of man with nature in the 21st century, and it is not only happening in Albania. No matter how many arsonists we have, there are many other reasons why we will have fires, so let's not focus only on punishments, but also on prevention.
Thirdly, fire prevention culture must be introduced in every school, in every state institution, in every building permit and urban planning of every village, city or tourist area. In a country where permits are given for towers, even more so there must be a study of the effects of fire on them – because in our country it can be fatal, with the broken fire extinguishers we have. So, the main battle is the battle of the infrastructure against fire.
Then comes the next battle – that of fighting the fire itself. This is the most familiar and simplest, except that it costs a lot of money. Albania needs to contract a fleet of aerial firefighters and urgently increase the fleet of ground firefighters, which can only manage if we manage to build what I said above: a passable network of mountains with emergency roads, according to a professional study of fire blockage.
Maximizing the number of firefighters on the ground and purchasing flight hours for firefighting aircraft and helicopters is a high cost, but necessary. Once we have built the firefighting infrastructure and firefighting equipment, then we should focus on legal penalties for fire. Here the police should turn to methods of surveillance and field identification of problematic individuals – arsonists, irresponsible shepherds who think that by burning pastures they are saving the sheep (while burning the sheep and the village), as well as deliberate arsonists who are often inspired by politics.
But this is the last thing we should do. Before that, we need to build an entire infrastructure against fires, a powerful fleet to put them out, and then legislation and a police network against arsonists, who can't wait to enjoy watching Albania burn.
Lini një Përgjigje