The Minister of the Interior, José Luís Carneiro, labeled this Saturday as “historic because it was nerve-wracking”, the creation of the Municipal Center for Relief Operations (CMOS) of Gondomar, and praised the “gains in efficiency” for civil defense .
In his speech at the inauguration ceremony of the municipal equipment representing an investment of more than 500 thousand euros – 140 thousand euros shared by European funds – by the Chamber of Gondomar, the official praised the decision.
“It is an effort that needs to be developed in other regions of the country. It is therefore good municipal practice. 90% of civil protection incidents across the country take place in local terms and have a local solution. They don’t go beyond the municipal level, which means that more capable civil defense systems, in this case in terms of communications, are more effective, efficient and make a highly relevant contribution to civil defense across the country.”he later added in statements to journalists.
CMOS manages first emergencies, works in a network and enables a global and integrated response to all factors related to an emergency. This integration makes it possible to better understand how to send the resources, saving minutes that can be decisive in this type of response.
In his speech, the president of the council, Marcos Martins, explained that in terms of relief, the response will be a “three to four minutes gain”, emphasizing that it is an investment “that does not win votes, but saves lives “. .
Centralizing the municipality’s rescue operations in one room was the basis for the creation of the CMOS, which from now on allows all the work of the five fire brigades in the municipality to be done from the central, according to the information sent to Portuguese.
CMOS will always contain six elements: municipal police, civil protection, fire command, two fire operators and a municipal liaison.
In the remaining speeches at the ceremony, which took place at GoldPark, where CMOS already operates, INEM President Luís Meira pointed out that it is “a step taken by other municipalities (…) in providing a real public service”.
For his part, Brigadier General Duarte da Costa, president of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, said CMOS “is an example of what it means to work for efficiency by increasing effectiveness.”
Source: DN
