site.bta85 Municipalities, 6 Regional Administrations Trained in Managing BG-ALERT System

In an interview with BTA, Chief Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov, head of the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Population Protection, said that there are already representatives from 85 municipalities and six regional administrations, a total of 129 officials, trained in the BG-ALERT early warning and notification system, the principles of its functioning and information that needs to be processed regarding its implementation.

Dzhartov said that the trainees can compose an alert message and choose the relevant region or territory. Regarding the period in which the remaining municipalities will receive certificates, Dzhartov indicated that it depends on their requests. “We are constantly available to conduct training. We are currently discussing the dates when the next 20 municipal and regional representatives who have applied will be trained,” he said.

When asked why the system did not work last year during the fires around the village of Voden, the Chief Commissioner explained that in order for users to receive a message from BG-ALERT, the system needs to be activated, and this was not the case in Voden. For this to happen, a mayor of a municipality, a regional governor or a minister needs to order these actions, Dzhartov commented.

He also said that in order to activate the BG-ALERT early warning process, several things are needed - the first step is to have information that an event is occurring that poses a danger. Based on this information, after an analysis, a decision is made whether to use the relevant channel to warn the population. BG-ALERT is just one of all the channels. Media, social networks, radio, and maybe even person-to-person information channels can be used.

Dzahrtov noted that it takes up to four minutes from pressing the button to send a message from the system to receiving it. It takes more time to acquire information about the situation, analyze it, and decide whether to use the system. 

He also said that this year, one of the projects that the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Population Protection is working on is training over 25,000 people in the risk of forest fires,  how to prevent them from starting and what actions should be taken if they occur.