Kosovo heroes who saved lives

For Kosovo firefighters, 2019 has been of numerous interventions and challenges.

Latif Zeka, commander of the Fire Brigades, told the Online Economics that there have been about 922 professional appearances in cases of fires, accidents, human rescue, and drinking water.

Zeka relates that just a few days ago, they saved a person from an accident that had occurred in traffic, getting him out of a truck.

The last “Rast was this month, saved from a fire truck, where that truck ran into a truck and was rescued alive, followed by several broken but alive”, Zeka stressed.

However, it shows that firefighters also face severe situations when they should attract dead citizens as a result of traffic accidents.

Dead citizens from traffic accidents have been in total until the 11th month were 3, injured 9 of the citizens where they were attracted to”, Zeka said.

Zeka says that for all firefighters, it is a difficult task, since they do not know what they face until they arrive at the scene.

One of the most difficult moments says that fires occur in multistory dwellings.

It's really hard that they don't know what you're facing until you get to the scene. You never know exactly what's going on. It's known to be a fire, but the hardest moments are for fire fighters, when it's a very small place, where there's a fire in a apartment where it's smoked for human salvation, it's supposed to draw those people up and down. This is challenging, challenging, is the home or flood, but the most pronounced fires are when they occur in the multi-story dwellings”, Zeka said further.

It shows that over the course of this year, the month of March has been the most pronounced at 345 exits due to field-mountain fires.

“We've interviewed where we need to, but we firemen have been, there are times especially during the beginning of the year in March, March has been the most pronounced we've had a total of 345 exits in March. The most pronounced of all the droughts, the winter that we know was dry even there were mountain fire mostly means there are times when we couldn't cover up all the way back to where we needed it to be,”, he said of the ego.

And compared with years of firework, Zeka shows that 2015 is isolated because of the large number of interventions that have been 2000.

The “Viti that I'm pointing at 2015 we've had mostly mountain field interventions, which means they've been very pronounced in the field in the mountains this has been, and this vir is also, but not like the year I mentioned earlier”, Zeka indicated.

Zeka says there are some cases when firefighters have suffered bodily injuries during interventions, but none have ended with fatality.

There are also dead people around the world, like the last case was in Italy, where there were 3 or 4 firefighters dead. We hurt yes, with minor injuries but dead no, fortunately there was no”, he said.

He says that during the years the Fire Brigade works, they have never received complaints from citizens.

But in addition to the relentless work of firefighters, they also face some problems, such as the small number of firefighters that Zeka says should be over 200 for Pristina alone.

The fireboxes are not enough, they are very few. Pristina should have had over 200 firefighters, or we're all 98 firefighters. We don't have health insurance that's one of the main challenges, that 20 years of firemen from the moment they get to work until they go home, they're in danger and we don't have health insurance. The extra hours they have, night hours, holiday watches, these don't enjoy”, he said.

However, another problem facing firefighters now for eight years is their unresolved status. Because of this, Kosovo firefighters have protested several times.

The main problem is only eight years ago that firefighters have no status. Legally, we are employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the Emergency Management Agency, salaries and investments so far we have taken them to the municipality. Here is the problem that the fire status has not yet been resolved”, Zeka further stressed.

But Zeka hopes that the status of firemen will be resolved in 2020, which would affect the number of workers.

We've been waiting for eight years. For the coming year, as much information as the Emergency Management Agency or the municipality has no budget for firefighters for capital investments, but I hope, and I hope that in the future year to come, the status will be resolved and then new workers will be accepted, fire fighters paid for not paid until today”, he said.