The Minister of the Internal Administration, José Luís Carneiro, admitted this Sunday, in Pedrógão Grande, that there were “peaks of congestion” in the calls but denied that the SIRESP had failed in the Leiria fires.
“The SIRESP network has not failed. We have to be very clear. There were spikes in congestion. It means that in that period there were more than half a million calls and the average waiting time in relation to this peak was 3.20 seconds. The one that took the longest was just over a minute. The network did not fail, we are talking about congestion in calls that were made at the same time and calls, above all, took a long time and, therefore, blocked the entry of others into the system”, advanced the Minister of Education. Internal Administration., José Luis Carneiro.
The socialist official was speaking on the sidelines of the 75th anniversary of the Humanitarian Association of Volunteer Firefighters of Pedrógão Grande, in the district of Leiria, and pointed out that, like the statements made by the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, his statements are based on “information provided by the technical authorities”, since they are “the ones who can validate matters of a technical nature”.
“Political power cannot speak without technical support. It is based on technical support that the Secretary of State spoke and I speak myself”, he reinforced.
Given the fact that the technical information was provided by one of the “interested parties”, José Luís Carneiro said that “there is a record of all calls and there is evidence of that record.”
The official also said that at the time of the “congestion”, the National Directorate of Emergencies and Civil Protection made the decision to “mobilize two mobile communications units, one of which stayed in Freixianda. [Ourém] and another in the Ansião Fire Department”, to have a redundancy capable of guaranteeing “that all communications were in good condition”.
“Means were mobilized to guarantee electrical redundancy, so that if something could happen, the redundancy of energy operation would also be safeguarded,” he added.
The minister added that “sometimes, the use of [SIRESP] it is done in the terms that it should be.”
Therefore, “the different SIRESP users must still be trained.”
“No one told me. I was in the Ansião theater of operations. I was accompanying the commanders in the field and several times they tried to communicate through SIRESP and failed. The way to report the situation was through the mobile phone,” he said. the president of the Firefighters Federation of Leiria, Rui Rocha.
As reported, the Alvaiázere Fire Commander “recorded on the time tape the difficulty or impossibility of using this communications system.”
“What was said by the Secretary of State and the Minister does not reassure me. What we expect from a system like SIRESP, which is a system to be available in standby, in emergency and with a lot of load, is that it works in many communications”, he highlighted.
Rui Rocha did not agree that there is a “lack of training” for those who “use the SIRESP”. “That’s a bit daring.”
The National Authority for Emergencies and Civil Protection (ANEPC) clarified that the SIRESP communications network had “specific limitations” during the fires in Leiria this month, which were “resolved” quickly.
“During the period in which three large fires occurred in the district of Leiria, specific limitations in the SIRESP network were reported to the ANEPC, motivated by an overload of the network due to its misuse, and not associated to no problem in the structure of the red.red”, says the ANEPC in information sent to Agência Lusa.
Source: Observadora
