Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations: Equipping with fire fighting equipment in Armenia is not enough
ArmInfo. Equipping with fire-fighting equipment is not enough in Armenia - there is a shortage of finances. On August 17, after the meeting of the Government, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia David Karapetyan stated in a conversation with journalists. According to him, stormy public discussions were quite expected, which indicates a careful attitude to environmental issues and awareness of public interest.
At the same time, the deputy minister notes that, given that for a long time there were no fires of this magnitude, the society did not very well represent difficulties in extinguishing them, and expectations arose that such fires can also be extinguished very quickly. "In the fight against such fires, even the most powerful countries have difficulties," David Karapetyan said.
As for the technical equipment of the fire service, then, as the representative of the Ministry for Emergency Situations noted, there is technology, but this is not enough. "The equipment was purchased within the Ministry's capabilities, why we do not have an airplane to extinguish fires, it's a matter of finance, but to deny that the Ministry for Emergencies has recorded progress in its work in recent years is also subjective," he said. At the same time, according to the deputy minister, the department tried to compensate for the technical problems that had taken place by organized work.
Responding to the remark that Armenia applied for help to Russia only on the third day of the fire in the state reserve "Khosrov Forest", the deputy minister noted that at first glance the scale of the fire was not so large and Yerevan hoped to cope with the fire on its own. And only when the resolution of the situation by its own resources became impossible, the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations sent a request for assistance to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation. Recall that the rescue service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of RA received a signal on 12 August at 12:30 that a meadow is burning in the state preserve "Khosrov Forest" in the 20 km from the village of Urtsadzor (Ararat region), and only on August 14 the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia, Who was unable to fight the fire on his own, was forced to seek help from his Russian counterparts.On the same day at 19.20 the Il-76 special bunker of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia arrived in Armenia to participate in an operation to extinguish fires that took unprecedented scale in the mountains of Armenia According to pr According to the head of the association "For the sake of stable human development" Karine Danielyan, a large part of the reserve has burnt out - about 3000 hectares out of 30 Thousand