Co by się stało, gdyby pewnego dnia Ochotnicze Straże Pożarne przestały istnieć? Kto jako pierwszy ruszyłby na pomoc podczas pożaru, wypadku czy lokalnego zagrożenia w małych miejscowościach, czy wsiach? Choć wielu z nas nie zastanawia się nad tym na co dzień, działalność OSP ma ogromny wpływ na bezpieczeństwo i życie lokalnych społeczności. Dowiedz się o tzw. OSP z tekstu Jagody Szubart z klasy 2a, który pojawi się w letnim numerze naszej anglojęzycznej gazetki szkolnej AimHigh Magazine. Zapraszamy do lektury!
==================
If the volunteer fire brigade stop existing…
As some of you already know, since April 2023, I have been a member of the Youth Firefighting Team at OSP Czepielowice. During this time, I have had the chance to partly learn about the system and structure of how fire departments operate.
Many ordinary people do not realize how important volunteer fire departments are. Let us ask ourselves one important question: can we imagine a world where help arrives too late or does not arrive at all? A world where people living in small villages are left alone in difficult situations? Because this is exactly what it would look like without volunteer fire departments.
Many of you will probably say that there is still the State Fire Service. That is true, but did you know that there are about 16,000 volunteer fire departments in Poland, while there are only around 500 state fire stations? That is a huge difference, right? Volunteer fire departments have their own assigned areas, which are naturally much smaller than those covered by the State Fire Service. Thanks to this, volunteer firefighters know the local area better because they come from these communities themselves.
When they receive information about, for example, a forest fire, they are often able to find the location faster than state firefighters and reach it sooner because they operate within a smaller area and simply have a shorter distance to travel. I can confirm this from my own experience. When my unit had already arrived at the scene and started putting out the fire, the State Fire Service was only just arriving and still trying to find the correct entrance because they simply did not know the area well.
It is also worth noticing the differences between these two services. State firefighters are professionals for whom firefighting is a full-time job. Volunteer firefighters, as the name suggests, are volunteers. Of course, they are also trained and constantly improve their skills. However, they do not receive a regular salary for their service and time. When the siren sounds, they often drop everything and run to the fire station. They leave behind household duties, work, time with their families, or time to rest. They do this out of responsibility, commitment, and a sense of duty.
Now let us imagine that volunteer fire departments stop existing and only the State Fire Service remains.
A house in a village catches fire, and a family is trapped inside. Their chances of survival decrease with every minute, even every second. My nearest volunteer fire department, OSP Czepielowice, is only two kilometers away from my village, while the nearest state fire station is thirteen kilometers away. In such a situation, this difference is extremely important. Would anyone want to hear that the firefighters did not arrive in time? That your family lost their lives because nobody managed to help them? Or that the fire spread to nearby houses? Without volunteer fire departments, tragedies like these could happen much more often.
The logic is simple: the fewer volunteer firefighters there are, the greater the danger for local communities. Volunteer fire departments are not just public organizations. They are people who put the safety and well-being of others above their own comfort and safety every single day. Volunteer firefighters do much more than extinguish fires, rescue people from accidents, or even save cats stuck in trees. They also take part in local festivals and community events, helping to maintain order and ensure safety. These are people who are always ready to help, no matter the personal cost. They train young people like me in how to react in dangerous situations and prepare us for future professional training.
So, instead of asking ourselves why volunteer fire departments are needed, let us ask what would happen to us if they stopped existing.
Jagoda Szubart (2a)
