Bill proposes common rules and coordination for Spain's fire services

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The bill would create a common framework for all fire services in Spain, which currently operate under very different rules, and would finally develop a firefighters' statute that the Local Government Law called for back in 1985 but that was never passed.
2. Fire services would have to be free, staffed on site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and their operational staff would be career civil servants with the status of authority agents.
3. A General Directorate of Fire Services, under the Ministry of the Interior, and a State Coordination Commission with regions, municipalities, unions and firefighter representatives would be created to standardize training, uniforms, equipment and statistics.
4. The text details firefighters' duties (firefighting, rescues, chemical or nuclear emergencies, water and mountain rescue) and sets common organization rules: main and auxiliary stations, professional categories, response times and station locations.
5. Operational staff would get life and liability insurance, legal defense paid for by their administration, and could move to a 'second activity' status with adapted duties if their physical or mental capacity declines, without losing pay or rank.
6. The Government would have to create the new bodies within one year, send a Basic Firefighter Statute bill to the Cortes within six months, and create within two years an autonomous body for airport fire services, currently run by AENA.

Who it affects

• Firefighters of public administrations: For the first time they would have a common state framework: civil servant status, authority agent status, insurance, legal defense and second activity.
• Municipalities and provincial councils: They would have to guarantee on-site service 24 hours a day and provide it through direct management with career civil servants, alone or in consortia.
• Autonomous communities (regions): They would have to adapt their rules to the law within two years and guarantee common scales, categories and uniforms in their territory.
• The general public: People would receive a free, homogeneous and better coordinated fire service across the country.
• Airport firefighters: They would move under a new state autonomous body instead of the current managing company.

Words worth knowing

SPEIS

Spanish acronym for Fire Prevention, Extinguishing and Rescue Services: the fire services.

Segunda actividad (second activity)

A special status in which a firefighter with reduced physical capacity moves to duties adapted to their condition, without a pay cut.

Isócronas (isochrones)

Areas that can be reached from a fire station within a set time; used to decide where to locate stations.

Agente de la autoridad (authority agent)

A person whose orders and reports have official value when acting on the job, as with the police.

Gestión directa (direct management)

The service is provided by the public administration itself with its own staff, not by a private company.

It summarizes the text as it was introduced. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries