“No operative to go unpunished” if they complain to press – Portugal Resident
Limbering up for what may well be a complicated wildfire season, the government seems to have devised a way to side-step the kind of criticism that came its way during last year’s (fairly catastrophic) campaign.
Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Rui Rocha, told firefighters in Leiria today that numbers in terms of manpower, and firefighting planes, are being beefed, and that this year “I will certainly not fail to notice comments made on television by operational personnel who may say they are in theatre of operations without knowing what their mission is (…) No one will go unpunished for these kinds of statements.”
What Rocha appears to be referring to are the legions of complaints last year, in which Civil Protection was seen to have critically failed.
The secretary of state was ‘rolled out’ last August to face the music (as the minister of the time preferred to ‘work in invisibility’) and clearly he did not enjoy it. So, this year, anyone who wants to complain about resources, or Civil Protection’s handling of situations, can expect punishment.
The Leiria district is particularly vulnerable this summer, due to the devastation caused in forests by the winter storms, and the area’s propensity for exceptionally hot summer weather. Firefighters have 16 municipalities to watch over, including Pedrógão Grande, Leiria, Batalha, Marinha Grande and Pombal.
Source: SIC Notícias
