2024-05-10 17:39:09
A meeting with representatives of the voluntary groups was held yesterday in the etiquette room of the Municipality of Rhodes, by the mandated adviser of Civil Protection, D.E. Kameiros and Care of Stray Animals Companion, Mr. Thomatos Michael.
As he mentioned, it was a first informal meeting to discuss all the necessary issues and to have an exchange of views for the best possible coordination of the civil protection department of the municipality of Rhodes with all the volunteer groups of the island during the fire fighting season.
He also said that in the next ten days the contracts will be signed to carry out the necessary earthworks and cleaning works in the nine municipal units. Also, by the end of May, the hiring process of 54 seasonal fire protection workers will be completed.
It is recalled that their employment with a fixed-term Private Law employment relationship of up to five months was decided at an extraordinary meeting of the municipal committee, a few days ago.
These are nine drivers for the transport, loading and unloading of cleaning products at the municipality’s waste collection site, three operators of construction machinery, two operators with a construction machinery operator’s license (M.E.), one operator with a construction machinery operator’s license and forty-two forest firefighters for the other manual tasks.
Previous experience in a similar position will be taken into account, both during the announcement and for the assignment of the tasks of each. The salaries of the fixed-term fire safety staff will burden the municipality’s budget for 2024 with €300,000.00 and €75,010, which are the employer contributions.
In general, the municipality of Rhodes emphasizes civil protection, as the general secretary, Ms. Anna Paraskevopoulou, stated in her presentation to the economic committee, the natural wealth is what makes Rhodes stand out from all the islands (most islands without significant vegetation) and favors the preferences of visitors from all over the planet.
The increased temperatures (40-41oC) combined with the prolonged dry spell and the rich forest and grassland vegetation, create all those conditions for fires, which several times and on a large scale took place in our area and many times threatened houses, such as the Monte Smith fire in 2018, which was prevented from spreading into the urban fabric at the last minute.
In addition, the fires that occurred on 18-07-2023, which hit and created enormous destruction in our island’s forests, residential areas, houses, animals, require the management and implementation of civil protection programs.