Firefighters are not only dedicated to firefighting and other rescue tasks, but also, like many volunteers, have their respective jobs, far from the flames. The issue is that, contrary to the call of the central authority, certain “bosses” would not be facilitating the arrival of the “good guys” to fight the fire.
In this context, in the midst of the voracious fires that affect the center-south zone of the country, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture (Minagri), Minister Esteban Valenzuela, launched a harsh criticism of those employers of people who at the same time are Volunteers in Firefighters of Chile.
The Secretary of State told radio Cooperative that authorities of the institution explained to him why some fire units are withdrawing, both from Ñuble and from Biobío and La Araucanía. “Not only due to fatigue, but because many employers are not respecting, despite the enormous crisis and catastrophe that is taking place here, this tradition of leaving firefighters, volunteers, who can be absent from work,” he said. Minister Valenzuela.
The head of Minagri ruled that this type of absence from work is “for the strategic security of Chile, to safeguard the economy itself.” In this sense, he affirmed that previously the authorities requested employers to facilitate absences from work for volunteers who were fighting the accidents.
