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UCPM Experts Day à Bruxelles
As per annual custom, all Belgiantrained experts within the framework of UCPM (European Civil Protection Mechanism) gathered in Brussels on 28 October 2022 for a seminar. After two previous editions took place online because of COVID-19, it was an excellent time to meet live again.
On the 3rd of December the Belgian Directorate-General for Civil Protection organized its 5th UCPM Experts’ Day. This yearly seminar brings together all Belgian Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) trained experts, providing them with updates on the evolutions within the UCPM and the Belgian activities and projects in the domain of international emergency assistance. This year it had to be online, but it usually takes place for a whole day in the centre of Brussels, enabling formal and informal exchanges.
On Tuesday 16 March 2021, the Directorate-General Civil Security received a "Commemorative Award" in recognition of Belgium's exceptional commitment to the organisation of the European exercises (EUModex) taking place every year in the framework of the European Civil Protection Mechanism (ECPM).
app 112 BE: “The life-saving app”
Today marks the launch of four videos intended to promote the use of the “112 BE” app by people who may not yet know about it. This app has existed for three years and, ever since, it has already been downloaded over 930,000 times.
pompe à très haut débit (51.000 litres/minute)
Depuis peu, grâce au soutien financier de la Commission européenne, la Protection civile s’est dotée d’une nouvelle pompe à très haut débit (51.000 litres/minute). Elle vient s’ajouter au matériel existant du cluster HTD (Heavy Technical Deployment). La Protection civile dispose désormais de deux pompes de ce type, ce qui augmente considérablement ses capacités de pompage lors d’inondations de grande ampleur.
Euro NCAP
On 17th June 2020, Euro NCAP, the European organization in charge of crash tests on new vehicles, launched the "Rescue Sheets" database. It contains the sheets providing very useful information about cars on the road (where the battery is located, where the cables are routed, which potential dangers the cars represent, ...). Rescuers throughout the whole world will be able to consult this database. And, in the event of a road accident, they can view immediately on a tablet, or even a smartphone, the sheet pertaining to the vehicle or vehicles involved in this accident. Thanks to this database, it will become possible for the emergency services to work more effectively and faster in case of road accident.
Up to now, volunteers in the Belgian emergency rescue zones were not covered against occupational diseases. Due to the risks caused by the crisis brought about by the new coronavirus and to the recognition – by Fedris (Belgian Federal Agency for Occupational Risks) – of COVID-19 as an occupational disease for (career) paramedics, the Minister of Home Affairs and Security Pieter De Crem reached an agreement so that volunteers in the emergency rescue zones can be covered as well. During the Council of Ministers on the 25th April 2020, the Belgian Federal Government decided to consider them in the same way as their career colleagues are being regarded. This regulation applies to volunteer firefighters and paramedics in rescue zones.
our site's Fire Brigade webpage
The "Reform" page is to be removed and be replaced with two new pages called "How the Zones Operate" and "About the Staff". There you will find all the updated information regarding the 34 emergency rescue zones' organization and the administrative and pecuniary status of these zones' operational staff. As the Fire Prevention Service has recently joined the Directorate-General Civil Security, a new webpage is specifically dedicated to "Fire Prevention".
Flood Rescue Using Boats (FRUB)
From last 8th February to 12th February, two officers of the Belgian Civil Protection, Colonel Jan Beeldens and Captain Bastiaan Ruys, participated in an exercise which represented the second step of the course which should lead to the certification, by the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism authorities, of the Flood Rescue Using Boats (FRUB) module. The first step consisted in a visit by the European Commission to meet the members of the FRUB Team. This module has already taken part in several large-scale international exercises to be best prepared for this certification (CASCADE 2019 in Portugal last year, RIWATEREX in Spain in 2018, Sørland in Norway in 2016, …).

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