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Why the Beirut Municipality? Because the regiment is not part of the Civil Defense Directorate, as many believe, but an independent body – similar to the Beirut Guard Regiment – affiliated with the municipality … and here is the origin of the calamity!
At the center of the main Karantina regiment, the debris and damage removal workshop caused by the port explosion was completed with the help of dozens of volunteers, and everything was back to the way it was before the disaster … But what it wasn’t good in the first place. In a corner of the main courtyard of the center there are fire trucks and ambulances that are still in place from before the explosion. As “it has been inactive for years … and the municipality of Beirut did not comply with the request for reparation and did not acquire alternative mechanisms”, according to one of the officers of the regiment. What are you missing? It responds that the most useful question to ask is: “What do we have first?”, Reviewing the “capital” of the regiment that supposedly meets the needs of about half of Lebanon’s population residing in its capital: ” The regiment’s equipment includes 13 fire trucks, the most recent model dating from 2008, six of them only in use while the rest are cracked and broken, waiting to be repaired. There are six water tanks to extinguish fires, only three of them are operational, along with a number of “Rapid” trucks that are also idle. As for all that the escalator regiment owns, there are no more than three, they are all not working. ” It does not have night light detectors, lighting devices, advanced oxygen tanks for personnel, or wireless devices to communicate between operatives during missions. the origin of the duel! Five years ago, two corporals of the regiment, Adel Saadeh and Muhammad al-Mawla, were martyred during a firefighting mission in an underground warehouse in the Mar Elias area, due to the lack of wireless communication devices between the personnel of the mission and advanced respirators. That day, the two young men entered the burning warehouse and were lost before they ran out of oxygen and suffocated underground. The death that occurred in 2015 has not yet bothered the municipality to address its causes to prevent its recurrence, at a time when it does not hesitate to spend millions of dollars on the Christmas village, Ramadan decorations and entertainment parties.
In comparison, the neighborhood fire department, for example, is equipped with ten fire-fighting vehicles and two large tanks with a capacity of 15,000 liters each and a 42-meter-high rescue ladder, as well as support mechanisms. They include two bulldozers, a “winch”, mobile lighting devices, pumps to draw water from open areas and four buoys. The Lebanese fire brigade is also unique in owning bicycles equipped to fight fires. Their role came to prominence in the Beirut port explosion disaster, when dozens of modern personnel and mechanisms helped extinguish fires, remove debris and recover casualties. It also imposed its presence in disasters that travel between regions, from the Chouf fires last year to the recent high intensity fires. While the fire brigade of the Union of Municipalities of Bint Jbeil (based in the city of Baraashit) has seven mechanisms in accordance with the nature of forests and residential neighborhoods, and the fire brigade of Sidon has four major extinguishing mechanisms fire engines, two medium vehicles, a small mechanism, tanks and a support and rescue vehicle that includes modern respirators and modern fitted suits. For items!
Shabib: the right to the municipality
The Mar Elías incident took place during the reign of former Beirut governor Ziad Shabib, who was blamed by various members of the regiment for the marginalization and neglect that the regiment suffered during the six years he spent in office. While Shabib rejects the accusations and forwards them to the municipality of Beirut, assuring “Al-Akhbar” that “my conscience is clear of what I presented to the regiment and what I tried to present. But I do not have the decision to ensure the deficiencies, because the city council is the one that handles the purchases ”. Shabib is not satisfied with accusing the municipality of negligence, but he also hints at suspicions of corruption. So, “My attempts to secure the regiment’s deficiencies did not come to an end because of the municipality. I always asked the regiment commander to inform the municipal members of their needs. Sometimes the purchase was in sight, but when making the acquisition, and instead of requesting purchases within the capacities at an acceptable cost, the cost increased exponentially, as it happened when it was decided to purchase ambulances. The process was not completed because the City Council raised the costs for reasons that I was not aware of. And if that means outsourcing fees and benefits, Shabib responded, “Well, it is possible. Much reasonable. He also notes that “after the 2015 incident, I suggested to the Internal Security Forces that they include firefighters in their communications network. The Interior Minister at the time, Nohad Al-Machnouk, responded and assigned one of the officers to coordinate with the leadership of the regiment and the municipality. But they did not reach any results.
A source in the Beirut municipality denied “Al-Akhbar” Shabib’s allegations, referring to “routine administrative procedures” for the delay in deciding on obligations to specifically secure communication and aid equipment. While a source from the regiment blamed the municipality and Shabib together for negligence, after “malicious practices and saboteurs between them led to the freezing of important files.” He confirmed the validity of Shabib’s accusations to some members of the City Council of “exploiting the position for personal gain”, that in the process of entrusting the purchase of wireless devices “several condition books were launched on the measurement of influential bodies related to some members, before it was agreed to hand them over to the son of a senior contractor at a very high cost. . However, political interference sabotaged that commitment, but did not pressure to replace it with a transparent one.
Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told Al-Akhbar that when he visited the Karantina center for the first time after the blast, “I was surprised by the level of lack of equipment and promised them that their conditions would improve.” He stressed that “my first request from countries asking us about the kind of help we need is to improve the capabilities of the Beirut Fire Brigade. The French side responded, and then Italy indicated its intention to send teams.
Thirteen firefighting vehicles, of which only six are in use, and three escalators are not working
Abboud fulfilled in the middle of last month his promise to the families of the martyrs to approve their confirmation postponed from the beginning of 2019, due to administrative obstacles and a response between Shabib and the leadership of the regiment on the one hand, and Shabib and the general controller of the municipality on the other hand. 354 volunteers, firefighters, professionals, drivers and paramedics, including six martyrs who died in the port explosion, joined the regiment’s angel to become its number one thousand and four members, including 30 paramedics (of whom were martyred by Sahar Faris) .
In contrast to the stabilizing knot removed by the blood of the port martyrs, the pension system remains. Four years ago, the Shabib era saw the introduction of the retirement system for Beirut Municipality employees (including members of the Fire Brigade and Guard). The system, adopted in 2000, distinguished officers and members of the Guard and Regiment in terms of the retirement age, whereas previously it prevailed in place of retirement, which granted those who ceased their services a severance pay. . The current system has set the retirement age for the Guard and Fire Department at 56 years, compared to 64 years for other employees. However, to obtain the maximum retirement pension (85 percent), it stipulated that the employee had to serve 40 consecutive years. While the salaries of members of the regiment from firefighters to commanders are considered acceptable compared to other job categories (salaries starting at two million and 200 thousand pounds), the retirement age was considered a disabling condition for guards and firefighters, who are impossible to reach the forty-year ceiling when their retirement age is 56 unless they join. In the regiment, they are under 18 years old!
The Municipality of Beirut is studying
The Beirut municipality has not finished studying the demands of the regimental members for years. The modification of the retirement system for firefighters began to study about two years ago. According to a member of my country, the file “needs a legal and financial study. We are entrusted with people’s money. Currently, there are no building permits or revenue collection. “The second requirement, that officers be promoted and hired, is being considered. In 2018, the City Council decided to” amend the personnel of the Beirut regiment and upgrade the 306 regiments eligible for promotion, including officers, NCOs and individuals. “But Shabib” refused to promote everyone on the pretext that the regiment’s owners would not tolerate it, so the promotion caught some and deprived others of it. ” Regarding the request to strengthen equipment and mechanisms, the deputy pointed out that the current municipality, after his election in 2016, “requested the purchase of adequate equipment for the regiment, but the governor had to sign the transaction to walk”!
The Municipality of Beirut did not pay the expenses of the funeral of the martyrs!
Today, members of the Beirut Fire Brigade hold a protest movement in front of the Beirut municipality, in conjunction with an afternoon session of their municipal council. The measure came a month and a half after the Beirut port explosion, which killed ten members of the regiment during firefighting operations, and “because the municipality of Beirut to which the regiment belongs was not at the level of the sacrifices we made ”, according to one of the organizers of the movement. The sit-in comes as a protest against the postponement of the Municipal Council when signing the payment of the rest of the expenses of the burial ceremony of the martyrs of the regiment! In the details, the city council transferred 20 million pounds in advance to the regiment’s leadership to pay for the expenses of the ceremony, but it was not enough to cover the expenses of the ten funerals. According to a source from the regiment, “We submitted a request to the municipality to spend ten million pounds to complete the payment of expenses. For weeks, the application has been on the table of the City Council, pending signature.
The sit-in also came to demand the implementation of the decision of the municipality issued in 2018, which decided to improve all the personnel of the regiment, and decide on the maintenance of the regiment’s vehicles after the arrival of the aid that some Western countries promised to send. after the port explosion. It should be noted that a delegation from the regiment met twice with the mayor, Jamal Itani, who emphasized “the inability of the municipality to bear the cost of repairing the inactive mechanisms.”
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