Voluntary fire and rescue teams to get necessary equipment in Armenia 

ArmInfo. In Armenia, voluntary fire and rescue teams will be equipped with the appropriate equipment. The decision on this was made at a meeting of the RA government on January 30.

As noted in the rationale for the draft resolution, the creation of  voluntary public rescue teams in emergency situations is based on an  event that provides for the presence of at least one voluntary rescue  team in each region. The creation of bases and the development of  their capabilities are due to a number of factors. In particular, in  Armenia, due to the physical and geographical location, the  uniqueness of the Armenian Highlands and significant differences in  absolute altitudes, roads leading to highland areas and rural  communities become difficult to pass, and sometimes completely  impassable, in the winter months, which creates an additional  obstacle to responding to emergency situations. In hot and dry summer  weather, almost all units of the Rescue Service operate in overload  mode, moving from one scene of an incident to another, covering tens  of kilometers, sometimes responding to several incidents  simultaneously. There are settlements in Armenia that are located at  a distance of up to 48 kilometers from the duty fire and rescue  units, and fire and rescue units, especially when eliminating  emergency situations in border and high- mountain settlements, move  at a speed of no more than 20-30 km / h. When passing turns, arrival  at the scene of the call is sometimes 50-60 minutes, as a result of  which local residents often do not call rescuers, as they understand  that the response cannot be effective due to the distance and loss of  time.

In order to develop the voluntary rescue movement, voluntary fire and  rescue bases have been created in 9 communities of the Republic of  Armenia, to which fire trucks have been donated by the relevant  decisions of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. Currently,  the VOLFIRE project "Institutionalization of the Voluntary First  Response Service in the Republic of Armenia", funded by the Austrian  Development Agency and the Austrian Red Cross, is being implemented  jointly with the Armenian Red Cross Society with the aim of  developing the voluntary rescue movement. The project is based on the  development of the capacities of 8 existing voluntary fire and rescue  bases, as well as the creation of 4 new voluntary fire and rescue  units, the reconstruction of the bases, and their re-equipment with  the necessary equipment.

At the same time, within the framework of the grant support of the  Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Armenia, a project is being  implemented to improve the sustainability of forest fire management  in Tsaghkadzor. The project plans to create a voluntary fire and  rescue team in the village of Meghradzor, Tsaghkadzor community,  Kotayk region. Within the framework of the project, a building for  the base has already been built, the community will carry out work on  its arrangement, and personal protective equipment and property for  volunteers will be purchased. The process of creating and developing  voluntary fire and rescue teams is carried out with the assistance of  local governments. In particular, the provision of territories and  the construction of buildings and structures for fire and rescue  teams, as well as the recruitment of volunteers are carried out by  local governments. Based on the above, and also taking into account  the fact that the Rescue Service's vehicle fleet has been updated in  recent years, it is advisable to provide the created volunteer fire  and rescue bases with ZIL-130 AB40 fire trucks, provided that the  property is used for its intended purpose in order to organize prompt  response to fires and other emergency situations.