ATTENTION! A Firefighter’s Sensitive Human Side

Firefighting is a job that covers many fields.

As children, usually while celebrating the carnival, our parents used to go to buy at the story or sew themselves the best possible firefighter costume they could, and we would play at dousing fires. 

Many of us wore their costumes with pride, deciding to pursue the dream, turning it into a career, when the time came. Nestor Chayelle shares what real firefighting entails.

Nowdays, Firefighters not only douse fires. They also offer support during all sorts of crisis, be they grave or light, dedicating entire days of labour to a job full of complications that few really understand.  España, the city, has twelve different fire stations, the eight one, found at Vallecas, became this past 2017 in the second busiest one, with the one found in Ventas taking first place. “In a year, we attend to around 4,200 emergencies. That makes about a 12-a-day average,” explained Juan Carlos del Castillo, sub-officer. The firefighting profession has seen a clear change in trends: “Our job isn’t limited to fighting fires,” said the firefighting officer. “On the contrary, the number of water damage situations have increased (floods, leaks…). In the past 10 years, these have increased by 13,5%.” However, the greatest increase in number has been in cases of fallen trees or traffic lights: during 2017 alone, they attended an entire 20,4% more cases of these nature when compared with 2007. Besides that, staff claim that the amount of “suicide attempts” have also increased. Each shift is exhausting Shifts at this job are 24 hours long. The 20 to 25 workers at “headquarters” claim that, despite the harsh schedule, they are well organized. However, the group’s leader, Julio Cubillo, says that the greatest problem they face is the lack of experienced drivers.