No one is exempt from being rescued, sometimes in situations of serious risk to life, by firefighters, police or emergency services health workers, who by law are entrusted with this task. But, when do the citizens have to be the ones who pay for these actions?
This week, a young woman from Alicante denounced the sending of a receipt in which the City Council of her city demanded 211 euros for the intervention of several fire departments in April 2022, when this girl tried to commit suicide at her home by ingesting medication. antidepressants.
The case made the leap to social networks and the great commotion generated caused the rectification of the Alicante City Council, which, in addition to not charging for this service, will study modifying the municipal ordinance that regulates the payment of fees related to displacement and the intervention of local emergency teams.
And it is that, as explained to Efe by the fire coordinator of the Professional Union of Local Police and Firefighters (SPPLB) and corporal of the body in the city of Valencia, Carlos Conde, the policy of charging citizens who receive the attention of the services of emergencies “depends on the municipal or provincial regulations” of each territory.
However, in general terms, fees such as those that the Alicante City Council claimed from the aforementioned young woman are only paid by citizens “when there is no life-threatening situation”, or in cases in which the commission is determined of “negligence” or “recklessness”, says Conde. “Sometimes the line is very fine,” she continues, so that on many occasions the decision is made by the head of service in the intervention.
For example, it is common to charge citizens fees when firefighters have to open the door of a home and inside there is no serious risk situation for any person.
Fire brigades in Spain usually have municipal, provincial or regional powers. In general, the large capitals have a local fire brigade and in the rest of the municipalities of the same province a corps dependent on the provincial council operates.
For their part, in most single-province autonomous communities, such as the Community of Madrid, in addition to the capital’s firefighters, there is a body that intervenes in the rest of the region’s territories.
As detailed by the CSIF fire department manager in the Community of Madrid, Juan Carlos Martínez, the interventions of the emergency services -both local and regional- in the region are “completely free” in almost all cases, since taxes are charged for equipment maintenance.
Asked about a possible solution to this “confusing” map, Valencia municipal fire corporal Carlos Conde misses a “state regulatory framework” that regulates the financing of trips and interventions by emergency services.
“We have some regulations that date from the Franco period and should be updated,” he concludes.
