The president of the Provincial Council of Castellón, Marta Barrachina, promotes the creation of a new brigade unit in the Castellon Province Fire Department, the rural brigades of forestry actions (BRAF) and reinforces the prevention and fight against fires in the mountains of the province.
As the president of the provincial institution has indicated, “from the Castellón Provincial Council we continue working and adding resources to protect the rich forest heritage of our territory and with these brigades we reinforce prevention work and support in the work of review and consolidation of the “perimeter, key in the fight against fires.” “We have a very large forest area, with nearby inhabited areas, with agricultural and livestock farms, or tourist resources that we have to protect, and the more we commit and work on prevention and extinction efforts, the more we will secure and preserve our natural environment” , added Marta Barrachina.
The first four brigades of this initiative will be located in Caudiel, Zucaina, Vall d’Alba and Xert, “spaces that have been chosen strategically to provide coverage for the entire province.” This was indicated by the Firefighters deputy, David Vicente, who has met with the president of the Provincial Council to finalize the implementation of this initiative that was born with a budget of 600,000 euros.
Each of the four BRAF brigades has a foreman and four specialist labourers. “All of them will have a perfectly organized structure to deal with the actions in charge of prevention and support for media in extinction,” explained the provincial deputy.
Regarding the list of functions to be performed, these brigades aim to carry out forest fire prevention work, which especially includes forestry and preventive surveillance. Likewise, they will be in charge of reinforcing the cleaning and conditioning of the forest-urban interface areas.
And among its functions it is also worth highlighting its intervention as a complementary service in other emergencies, with special mention to the extinction of forest fires. At this point, the rural brigade unit for forestry actions will act in case of emergencies to review the perimeter and finish off the fire; “These brigades are going to be an important support to the means in charge of extinguishing a fire, carrying out support work for the rest of the operation in reviewing and consolidating the perimeter to avoid possible outbreaks and contribute to its extinction,” said David Vicente.
To launch these brigades, the Castellon Province Fire Departament will carry out a selection of personnel and training. In this regard, the provincial deputy has indicated that all those interested in being part of the staff of the new brigades can contact their respective city councils who will send the Consortium the applications that they receive.
The provincial deputy has insisted on the importance of keeping the roads and paths of the natural environment clean and has assured that “from the Consortium we work throughout the year to try to prevent the spread of fire and for this reason we continue to reinforce the available means, both human as materials.”
The deputy responsible for the Castellon Province Fire Departament has stressed that “the work carried out by the brigades is fundamental.” Likewise, he assured that “citizens play an essential role in taking care of our mountains and the environment. It is everyone’s responsibility to protect our rich natural heritage,” concluded David Vicente.
