More than 6,000 employees of the State Emergency Service (SES) and 2,500 units of equipment will be on duty throughout Ukraine during the Easter holidays.
This was announced during a briefing by Roman Tsyren, Head of the Department of Emergency Prevention of the State Emergency Service, answering questions about the readiness of the rescue service for Easter, Ukrinform reports.
“More than 6,000 SES employees – firefighters and rescuers – will be on duty in the country for the holidays, 2,500 special and other fire and rescue equipment will be involved. In Kyiv, 100 vehicles and 430 rescuers will be on duty. If the situation becomes more complicated, the number of personnel and vehicles will be doubled,” said Tsyren.
According to him, this year in Ukraine there have been 9 fires in religious buildings – in churches and chapels, but, unlike last year, there were no injuries.
The SES representative informed that in order to avoid such incidents on the eve of Easter, authorized persons of the rescue service, namely the inspection staff, conducted more than 11 thousand inspections and briefings with the clergy and religious communities, etc.
“We had discussions with the clergy about the location of candlesticks used in churches – no closer than 1 meter to flammable structures. So that they (the clergy – ed.) could not overcrowd the premises with people, as this can cause a stampede, to watch the accumulation of people, etc.”, said Tsyren.
He said that in some cases, rescuers impose sanctions on such leaders of religious communities who neglect fire safety rules.
“34 administrative penalties have been applied by our inspectors to such violators,” said the SES representative.
Answering the question about recommendations for citizens on how to behave in a church so as not to cause a fire, and in case of air raid alarms, if people are in the church at that time, he recommended that people look in advance at the location of the religious building and where the nearest shelter is.
“Many places of worship have basements, and they are used as the simplest shelters. That is, you first need to get your bearings. Personal responsibility is also the key to preventing disasters from happening to our citizens,” Tsyren said.
The representative of the rescue service assured that the SES is one hundred percent ready to fulfill its tasks.
Answering a question about people visiting cemeteries after Easter, he advised citizens to be responsible.
“If you have cleaned the graves, you need to take the garbage with you and throw it in the appropriate place. And in the de-occupied or frontline territories, you need to pay attention to the presence of objects that resemble explosives. And if citizens find them, they should immediately report them to 101 or 102,” Tsyren informed.
As reported by Ukrinform, the National Police will work in an enhanced mode during the Easter holidays.
Photo: SES
Source: More than 6,000 rescuers will be on duty on Easter in Ukraine
