Firefighters protest by sounding their sirens in rejection of budget cuts

At 9:30 p.m. this Tuesday, Fire sirens throughout the country were activated in unison in protest at the reduction in the institution’s budget.

The Chilean National Fire Directorate agreed to the demonstration to alert the community “of our deep annoyance and dismay at the decision taken by the Government.”

The sending for processing of Reason for Decree No. 707 of the Treasury of April 30, which materializes a reduction in the budget of the Fire Department for the year 2020, took by surprise and generated “deep annoyance” in the institution.

According to Firefighters, this represents a cut of $ 1,500 million in resources for the training of its personnel, $ 1,450 million committed in the payment of car bombs and minor material for the fire departments, and $ 805 million for extraordinary aid for the bodies, all representing a 7.86% reduction in the resources provided by the State.

The institution asked the Executive to set up a Dialogue Table to address the situation and decided to “alert the community of our country, which we have served voluntarily and free of charge for more than a century and a half, of our deep annoyance and dismay at the decision adopted by the Government, using the sirens of our units and barracks of all the fire departments of the country, today at 9:30 p.m. in continental Chile, (10:30 p.m. in the Magallanes region and 7:30 p.m. on the Island of Easter), an action that will be repeated tomorrow at 11.00 am ”.