16 Aug S.E.A.L.S. Forum:
The S.O.S. Team with the idea of training a volunteer rescue team in Burgas
Volunteers are the first to get involved in disasters. In Bulgaria, however, they do not have an organized system. This leads to delays in crisis situations and sometimes administrative chaos. Some of the volunteers do not have the necessary experience, and others do not have the equipment. Ivan Kristoff from the Rescue Association “Specialized Operarion Squad” has both the opportunity and the desire to train people who want to be involved in such missions. He presented his idea today to representatives of the Municipality of Burgas, the Maritime Administration and Port of Burgas.
According to the director of the “Maritime Administration” Directorate – Burgas, Capt. Zivko Petrov, it is necessary to organize and build into the law the possibility of creating a network of volunteer rescue teams, and not to work piecemeal. “An accident occurs, we improvise, we try to do something. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t or we succeed partially. If we build a clear system, that system will eventually begin to support itself with training, with training, and with direct action when necessary. Incidents can be very different, there is no way to describe them specifically, and we must be ready to attract different specialists, forces, means, equipment for the specific incident,” he explained. According to him, no country can afford to constantly support the necessary specialists and equipment. “Incidents don’t happen every day, but when they do, a resource must be able to be assembled. If the state has to maintain any resource, these are huge funds. And this resource must work, not just be in the warehouses. The private sector is just that. They do most of the work. We must have a mechanism to attract and assemble it. It’s not just about technique, but also about specialists,” added Cap. Petrov. He pointed to the need for divers in incidents as an example.
The system offered by Ivan Hristov includes land-water-air rescue, as well as in closed rooms, such as those found in ships. “For those who are willing, a rescue squad can be made that spans the mountain, land, water and air. Even rescue in aviation accidents. We not only have the willingness to train people, but also the methodology, technology, equipment, knowledge and experience to be as effective as possible. One of my strategies is to stress the rescuers. It is better to play out scenarios in advance and where weakness is seen to be avoided later,” he explained. Kristoff added that he filmed the training sessions so that the weak moments that could have been avoided could then be observed.
A survey of the area around Burgas has already been done for the creation of a training base for sea rescue. Kristof and the representatives of the institutions are also discussing the idea of organizing an Innovation Forum on the subject in Burgas at the end of this year.