Bomberos To Pressure
Fire Hydrant Law
The country counts with
about five thousand fire
hydrants for the "bomberos"
(firefighters) to
connect their hoses to.
However, how many are
actually working? The
Cuerpo de Bomberos (fire
department) estimates
less than half.
And it is for that
reason that bomberso
will gather this
afternoon at 1:00pm in
la Sabana to march to
the Legislative Assembly
in downtown San José in
an attempt to pressure
legislators to pass a
bill that would
guarantee them working
fire hydrants.
The bomberos are taking
the drastic action after
legislators made the
promise last Thursday.
If all goes well, by
3:00pm legislators will
have approved the bill
and an additional charge
will be added to all
water utility bills to
offset the cost of
maintaining the fire
hydrants. The Autoridad
Reguladora de los
Servicios Públicos (Aresep)
has yet to set the rate,
waiting on the approval
of the law first.
The "Ley de hidrantes"
has been 12 years in the
making.
Firefighters have had to
be ingenious in they
ways to fight fires in
areas were hydrants are
non-existent or worse,
not working.
Fighters have had to
resort to pumpers being
connected to water
tanker trucks that
unfortunately have not
been enough and have
resulted in many lost
battles with fires.
The main objective of
the hydrant law will
finally assign who is
responsible for the
maintenance of the fire
hydrants. |
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