More specialised training for emergency services

Staff Reporter THE Council of Majorca has announced plans to create specialised emergency teams to deal with maritime and collapsed building crises. The plans include special training courses for workers in the emergency services. The courses will include physical training as well as theoretical work. It was decided to introduce the measures following a review of operations after the first 100 days of the Council Emergency Board's existence. An important policy of the department is to provide sound intellectual and physical training for the members of its units, so that officers are interchangeable within its different sections. The emergency department will also include a series of changes in its corporate promotion section, such as the creation of an Ideas de Bombero (Firemen's Ideas) prize to be awarded to schoolchildren. Another initiative is the tour of inspection that representatives of the department's technical services will make to the Alicante Fire Station. The object of this exercise is to compare Alicante's operational model with that of Majorca, where needs and response circumstances are similar. It is hoped that the comparison will allow for improvements to be introduced on the Island. With regard to infrastructure, the Emergency Service department has announced the imminent creation of the Alcudia fire station. A series of visits will be made to all fire stations on the island in order to detect possible deficiences and to undertake reform work. Changes will also be rung in the current administrative structure of the department. Periodic meetings will be set up to plan out how the unit can best serve the public in the future. A technical committee will also be created, made up of trained staff from the Emergency Service department; and “open house” sessions will be arranged where workers representatives, management, technicians and officers in charge can meet to exchange comments, criticisms and ideas for the future.