Luxembourg rescuers responded to nearly 70,000 calls in a year
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On Monday, the Luxembourg Corps of Firefighters and Rescuers (CGDIS) presented a report on its work over the past year at a New Year's reception. The organisation recorded around 70,000 outings during the year - almost 200 calls per day. That said, a significant number of calls turned out to be false alarms. CGDIS director Paul Schroeder noted that the increase in false calls has been on the rise since the Covid-19 pandemic period.
With the completion of the first National Plan for the Organisation of Emergency Services (PNOS), CGDIS is working to develop the next phase of the plan, which will focus on fire prevention. The acceleration of construction projects aimed at solving the housing crisis requires the rescue services to make rapid recommendations on fire safety.
Interior Minister Leon Gloden stressed that it is important to maintain dialogue with municipal authorities and other key actors to strengthen the country's overall resilience.
The traditional concept of "firefighter for life" is a thing of the past. Today, volunteers are more likely to change status depending on their personal and professional circumstances. In this context, new formal statuses for volunteer brigade members are planned. A study on this issue has already been finalised by the Luxembourg Institute for Social and Economic Research (LISER) and a draft law should be presented by Easter.
CGDIS is setting up a new Resc-LU to support municipalities in natural disasters. The initiative is inspired by the German federal civil protection service Technisches Hilfswerk. The unit is focused on attracting new members with different backgrounds, providing alternative paths for those who want to join the Corps without traditional training.
Minister Gloden noted that the exact number of Resc-LU employees has not yet been determined, but it is clear that its main task will be to offload other CGDIS units.
The LU Alert system for sending emergency notifications has been operational in Luxembourg since October. Minister Gloden expressed his satisfaction with the results of the first months of the application: 3,500 people have tested it, of whom 85 per cent positively evaluated the new service.
