The group of the European People’s Platform (PPEM) on the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) requested acting mayor Silvia Radu to order to found the Municipal Rescue and Firefighting Service and to present the regulations on the organization and functioning of this service to the Council for approval.
In a news conference at IPN, councilor Veaceslav Bulat said there is a municipal commission for emergencies that consists of representatives of different institutions and is chaired by the mayor general. But the commission needs time to convene and propose the required intervention measures. It can be thus said that there is no specialized emergencies body at the local level, except for a rescue unit that is managed by the Green Areas Association.
The PPEM councilors called on the acting mayor general to summon all the heads of the institutions managed by the municipality and to demand that they should step up the control measures so as to ensure protection against fire. Joint commissions should be set up at the City Hall to carry out inspections at institutions at least once in half a year. In the theaters and cinemas of Chisinau, a person entrusted with such a task should speak about the security measures in that hall in brief before each play or film. When the municipal budget is reviewed again, the CMC will be requested to allocate money for installing smoke detectors and fire alarm systems in performance halls and at education institutions.
Municipal councilor Viorel Chivriga said the proposed measures refer especially to public institutions and commercial and alimentation units. “Such measures will have the expected result, but we do not want a space for eventual abuses to appear, first of all on the part of state institutions, by suppressing business entities,” he stated, noting that the measures that will be taken should not lead to penalties.
Councilor Igor Calin said changes were made to the legislation on fire safety in 2017. Some of the powers of the General Inspectorate for Emergencies were transferred to the Public Services Agency, but the latter does not have qualified personnel and didn’t agree the inspection procedure.
The PPEM councilors offered their condolences to the families of the victims of the March 25 Kemerovo shopping center fire that resulted in 64 deaths.
