Operation Florian continues to work in partnership with the Association of Firefighters and Rescuers of Montenegro.
In May 2023, a fully equipped Volvo fire appliance was donated by the charity to a volunteer fire station in Brestice, Trubjela, located in the municipality of Niksic. Alongside this, a team of specialist instructors from the UK made the trip to Montenegro to deliver the next phase of the 3 to 5 year project. The project has been designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of the Montenegrin firefighters and to improve firefighter and public safety. You can read about past visits to Montenegro here.
The training took place at Niksic fire station and included both practical and theoretical training in hose, pump and ladders along with road traffic collision and trauma training. A total of 25 volunteers and 20 professional firefighters were trained. This is the first time that volunteer and professional firefighters have trained together and this will only lead to better operational response and capability.
During the stay, the Operation Florian team also visited a local primary school with the Niksic firefighters and delivered a ‘show and tell’ session with a focus on home and road safety messages.
Moving forward, Operation Florian will be supporting the Association of Firefighters and Rescuers of Montenegro with prevention and protection strategies to assist in reducing the number of life-threatening incidents they attend and ultimately save more lives.
The Operation Florian project team would like to extend their utmost thanks and appreciation to Rachel De Souza from the British Embassy, Goran Jankovic, the chair of the Association of Firefighters and Rescuers of Montenegro and Slavko Krivokapic, the Station Commander of Brestice fire station for their support in making this phase of the training possible.
We would also like to extend a special thanks to the Rotary Club of Manchester who have kindly sponsored the project and Operation Florian is grateful for their contribution.
The next phase of the Montenegro project
The next phase of the project will involve bringing 18 firefighters and officers to the UK to train them to be able to then return to Montenegro and cascade the training they have learnt. This will create a more consistent standardised approach to operational response.
