Arafat specifies that volunteers from Brosteni must respect rules to prevent accidents

The head of the Department for Emergency Situations, State Secretary Raed Arafat, specifies that volunteers in flood-affected areas must respect certain rules to prevent accidents.

In this regard, he stated that one of the volunteers who arrived on Thursday evening ended up in the hospital after falling and injuring himself.

"In addition to our forces, from the beginning of the situation, volunteers began to arrive who worked, they were integrated into our intervention forces. Just yesterday, the chief inspector, who is the commander of the intervention there, announced to me that he took the volunteers, divided them into groups, together with his colleagues from the fire department, and they created several intervention groups that receive mission after mission, to solve them. And that is very good. (...) Other volunteers have also appeared starting yesterday evening and today, with whom we have absolutely nothing against, except that some rules be respected, to prevent some accidents," Arafat said, in a press conference held at the Victoria Palace.

He mentioned that the intervention area is a "risky" one and that accidents can occur. It is also necessary to coordinate the flow of cars so as not to block traffic, Arafat said.

"Considering that we had a large influx of cars, equipment, which came voluntarily, a request was made and even discussed with the chief inspector from Suceava and a measure was taken to coordinate these activities. The activity must be coordinated, and this is done with the Police and the Gendarmerie. Because, if everything that came, cars and equipment, were to enter the localities of Brosteni and Neagra, no one would be able to leave there, because it is a narrow valley and returning by car is very difficult, and this is the responsibility of the colleagues from ISU Suceava, who are coordinating the intervention," he specified.

Also, the distribution of aid must be carried out in a coordinated manner, so as not to block the intervention area, Arafat said.

"Those who came with aid... were asked to take it all to one place, after which the transport of aid, such as sandwiches, food, water, to the population is ensured, through a single means. But not everyone, on their own initiative, enters with a car and starts distributing, because, in fact, they clog and block the entire intervention area. I want this to be understood: such actions, if not coordinated correctly, fail," explained the head of the DSU.

He also rejected the statements according to which "some are in Bucharest, while others are working". In this regard, he emphasized that the central authorities were involved in coordinating the intervention, right from the beginning.

"I watched, listened, and saw many comments 'that nothing is being done', that 'some of us are in Bucharest, others are working' and so on. And I want to emphasize one aspect: no matter where we are, the colleagues who are working, the intervention command, which is at the level of the chief inspector of the ISU Suceava, were there day and night and were in contact with us from the first, not hours, but minutes of the situation, the minister being directly involved, together with me, in contacting and discussing, both at the level of firefighters, and at the level of prefects, sub-prefects who were on duty, in order to prevent any situation that can be prevented and to ensure the correct and most urgent response to the population", Arafat specified.