Barcelona’s third deputy mayor for security, Albert Battle, said the city council plans to require homes to have smoke detectors to prevent fires. He said this in a press conference on Wednesday with the city’s fire chief, Sebastia Massago, where he explained that they are jointly developing a new strategic plan to plan and prepare the city’s response to emergencies and risk situations which includes this proposal. He added: “The strategic plan wants to prepare Barcelona for emergencies and major urban transformations of the next decade and establish protocols that improve care for people.”
In addition, it presented the Firefighters’ Winter Campaign, which focused on prevention and enhanced information to prevent fires in homes, as well as further reviews of gas installations. He explained that as of November 30, firefighters carried out a total of 23,781 interventions, including 1,894 services related to fires or explosions that occurred in homes, i.e. 8% of the total and 5 interventions per day.
For his part, Massagi stressed that they are working to reduce the numbers and that they are “mostly” avoidable accidents that are the result of negligence. He stressed, “In the winter, there is a lot of use of stoves, heaters, and radiators, which causes accidents. It is also important not to overload sockets and not to handle scooters because they increase the possibility of fire.”
He also pointed out the importance of implementing smoke detectors on a mandatory basis, claiming that “they only cost 15 euros and they warn of fires at night,” stressing that they want to promote them in the context of prevention.
The event also contributed to the presentation of the 100% electric ambulance, which will be “the first in the peninsula” to operate with these features.