General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) (Romania)

Until 2004, the civil protection and fire-fighting measures were carried out by the General Inspectorate of the Military Fire Brigade Corps and the Civil Protection Command, institutions under the coordination of the Ministry of the Interior In order to adapt to the exponential growth of non-military risks, amid the acceleration of globalization trends, radical climate change, diversification of economic activities and disaster, the two institutions merged in December 2004, taking over the General Emergency Inspectorate (IGSU). The fundamental objective of the IGSU's activity is to improve the efficiency of the emergency prevention and management actions in order to keep the risks under control and ensure the normality of the life of the human communities and is achieved through the multitude of prevention and intervention activities for the extinguishing of fires, dismantling and first aid of SMURD, rescue of persons and limitation of flood damage, landslides, seismic movements, epidemics, epizootics, drought, drought, assistance to persons in critical situations, intervention in technological, radiological, nuclear, biological or other types of natural or anthropic calamities. The General Inspectorate and Territorial Structures comprise over 26,000 employees, 42 operational centers and over 280 operational sub-units. The necessary staffing is ensured through the dedicated training institutions: "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Police Academy Bucharest - Fire Department and "Pavel Zăgănescu" Boldeşti Fire and Civil Protection Non-Duty School. As an integrator of the National Emergency Situation Management System, created in 2004, the IGSU coordinates the actions of the institutions involved in the management of emergency situations, ensuring also the function of a national contact point in relation to the international governmental and non-governmental organizations with responsibilities in the field. The multiplication of non-military risks to national security, to which human-induced events can be added, the destruction of assets faced by specialized structures in recent years has forced the re-evaluation, identification and implementation of effective operational mechanisms based on integrated management emergency situations, a new concept of inter-ministerial, multidisciplinary co-operation on pooling all capabilities and capitalizing the expertise of the whole range of institutions with attributions in the field, in a format that covers all operational needs resulting from the action of the generating factors emergency situations. The need for unitary coordination to ensure the optimal and efficient functionality of device elements and capabilities as well as real, effective control provided by leadership by people with experience in the field requires the coordination of such structures at the level of the Executive and their effective management by a state secretary, a specialist in the field, within an Emergency Department. Thus, in 2014, the Department for Emergency Situations, an operational structure without juridical personality from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was established, with permanent coordination at national level of the activities for prevention and management of emergency situations, insurance and the coordination of human, material, financial, and other resources necessary to restore normal, including first-aid and emergency medical assistance within the emergency units and compartments, hereinafter referred to as the UPU / CPU, until hospital admission. The Department is headed by a State Secretary, Head of the Emergency Situation Department, appointed by the Prime Minister's decision, and in the exercise of his duties he coordinates: the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the General Aviation Inspectorate (only for situation management operations emergency). The National Emergency Situation Management System was created prior to the accession of Romania to the European Union and represents a permanent network of communication between the public administration authorities and the emergency management structures constituted by levels and areas of competence and having the infrastructure and the resources needed to reduce the loss of life and to intervene in different types of emergency situations. The National System is composed of: Committees for Emergency Situations (at national, ministerial, Bucharest, county and local level); General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (integrating role - ensures the transmission of the decisions taken by the Government or by the National Committee to the central and local public administration authorities); Professional emergency services and voluntary emergency services; Operational centers and coordination and management centers for intervention; Commander of the action (ensures the unitary coordination at the site of the exceptional event).   For managing emergency situations, IGSU and county structures undertake missions to: monitoring, evaluation, investigation of the causes of emergency situations; information and preventive education of the population and its warning, notification of the public administration authorities about the possibility / imminence of the occurrence of emergency situations; searching, releasing and rescuing people; evacuation of people, population or endangered goods, by ensuring evacuation measures, the installation of flood camps, participation in population transport and certain categories of goods; destruction of ice cubes or water courses; Emergency Medical Assistance through SMURD modules within professional emergency services; logistic assurance of the intervention of own structures and the provision to other structures of certain categories of equipment, materials and equipment; fire extinguishing; decontamination of the population, with specialized means and / or decontamination points personally, technically and equipment recognized in time in a territorial profile; neutralizing the effects of dangerous materials through actions to repair unexploded ordnance during military conflicts.   Within the County Inspectorates for Emergency Situations, the Emergency Medical Service, Reanimation and Downloading Service (SMURD) operates, having the aviation structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in cooperation with the county, regional and local public hospitals. In the SMURD structure there are integrated decommissioning teams, reanimation, specializing in the provision of emergency medical and technical assistance, as well as teams with paramedical staff, specialized in the provision of first qualified help. SMURD Missions: intervention in cases where one or more people are in a life-threatening situation due to an acute illness or injury; intervention in cases requiring first aid in a short period of time; intervention in cases requiring the release or other rescue operations; providing medical protection to IGSU intervention teams staff at specific risk-of-accident missions; interference with collective accidents and calamities.