They put out up to 76 fires a day

The exhausted firefighter, with a smile on his face, put his equipment away for a while, to refresh himself a little and prepare for a new fight with the fire element, gathered his strength and that picture was repeated day after day - from June to October.

It often happened that out of numerous interventions to extinguish the fire, and there were as many as 24 of them in 76 hours, most of which were caused by arsonists, they did not even have time to take a bite, but the fact that they were doing a humane job and saving lives and property made them satisfied and happy.

A dramatic summer season, with a record number of 2.022 fires, superhuman efforts to protect citizens' lives and property - this is the summary of 2017, which will be remembered by firefighters as one of the most difficult and challenging.

"That number is an incredible number for an urban environment, much bigger cities do not have such a number of interventions by firefighters. A colleague, a firefighter from New York, who was recently visiting us, otherwise a participant in the rescue operation on September 11, after the attack on the towers, was amazed and amazed at how many interventions we have," the commander of the fire and rescue unit, Lazar Čađenović, told "Vijesti" .

There are also a lot of irresponsible citizens, so it happens that they falsely report a fire or, even worse, deliberately set it on fire.

"Two years ago, in the winter time, we were informed that a house in Beri was on fire, two vehicles left from here and two from the checkpoint in 'Radoj Dakić'. The entire crew went there, the man left the house, there was no fire. I filed a criminal complaint against that man. I've been to court five or six times for that, but the police can't locate the man. Imagine if it happened that there really was a fire somewhere", says the commander of the Protection and Rescue Service Andrija Čađenović.

And the smile on the face and satisfaction, as pointed out by Ranko Racković, commander of the second shift, who has been a firefighter for 27 years, is even greater when they see the happiness on the faces of those closest to them, after the intervention is over.

"This is my second home, of course family comes first." But they know that we are engaged in difficult and risky work, there are sacrifices, and they are happy and satisfied when they hear that we managed to save human life and property. They are proud", says Racković.

He pointed out that in 27 years of doing business, this year was the most difficult.

"I am honored to be a part of this honorable and humane profession, we put in the maximum effort," said Racković.

Award "19. December" for 2017, on the occasion of the Podgorica Liberation Day, this year went to the firefighters.

"A record year in terms of the number of fires, this recognition has also arrived, we are especially glad that this award has arrived at the suggestion of citizens, 580 of them", said Chief Čađenović. He said that this year they also called in five crews of firefighters from the north.

“It turned out to be a complete hit. Crews came from Mojkovac, Rožaj, Beran, Pljevlja, Plav, they slept with us in the Fire Department," said Čađenović. He pointed out that they had a lot of help from the Army of Montenegro, the Directorate for Emergency Situations, city service workers and citizens.

A dog that wants to tear up a set

As Mayor Čađenović pointed out, they meet all the demands of citizens, even though they sometimes border on their competences.

"Recently, we had an intervention where a woman called us to open the apartment, because her dog was locked inside and was nervous, so she was afraid of tearing the leather in the furniture," said Čađenović. He explained that they have a special tool for opening blind doors, and will soon get a more modern one.

It happens, as Lazar Čađenović says, that they intervene to save a cat that climbed a tree.

"It requires the engagement of a car ladder, it's a whole procedure, but we are reacting," he said.

He pointed out that they follow trends in training and equipment for firefighters.

They plan to use the drone to help them put out large fires

Starting next year, the firefighters intend to introduce drone filming for their needs, which would allow them to better inspect the fire and also film arsonists.

"We plan to do this in cooperation with the company, which normally services the satellite system, through which all vehicles have GPS in order to reach the place of intervention as quickly as possible and by the shortest route," said Čađenović.

As he explained, even 99 percent of the fires this year were caused by the human factor, a small part unintentionally.

"We also have good cooperation with citizens who want to help us, but due to the specific work and the way we work, we are not allowed to engage them in extinguishing the fire." That's why this year we asked them to report to us if they saw arsonists, and that's how the famous picture of the man who set Ljubović on fire this summer was created," said Čađenović.

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