Overview

Dates: 02/10/2022 - 15/11/2022

Location: Podgorica, Montenegro And Berane

Objectives

project leader

Dave Thurston and pup Upton

Team members

Dave Berry
Rob Clark
Steve Jordan
Andy Ling
Andy Loxham
Ian Melville
Kath Port
Ash Tamam
Steve Twinn

Photos

The project

Montenegro

The training delivery implementation plan was developed in partnership with the Association of Firefighters and Rescuers of Montenegro, following a scoping trip in March 2022, that identified the deficiencies that require support from Operation Florian, in accordance with the Partnership Agreement.

The findings of the scoping visit highlighted that the initial focus should be on improving standards across all of the municipalities in Montenegro as this will bring, benefits of common standards, efficiency, effectiveness, intra-operability, and lead to long-term sustainability.

Since the scoping visit a range of equipment and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been donated and distributed to those stations that were identified with the greatest need and these stations were the ones that completed the training in the first phase of the project.

The Operation Florian Project team and a group of specialist instructors arrived in Montenegro on the 02 October 2022 to deliver the training program.

The training, both theoretical and practical, focused on Incident Command (ICS), Breathing Apparatus (BA), Road Traffic Collision (RTC) and Swift Water Rescue (SWR). Immediate Emergency Care (IEC) was incorporated into all practical drills and scenarios. The ICS training also introduced the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Program (JESIP) principles.

The first stage of bringing about these improvements to service delivery was training delivered at 2 geographical locations in Montenegro, one in the South, Podgorica and one in the North, Berane. A total of 127 firefighters received the training over 5 days.

In conjunction with the training as detailed above there was a range of workshops to assist the Association of Firefighters and Rescuers of Montenegro to improve public perception of the fire and rescue service (FRS), by raising its profile and also look at ways of attracting a more diverse workforce; currently there are only 2 female firefighters in the whole of the Country.

The primary purpose of the training was to identify Officers and Firefighters that demonstrate the aptitude, ability and potential to progress further to undertake future training in the UK, with the intention to be able to return to Montenegro and cascade the training that they will receive.

This will then form the foundation and basis for the delivery of the 3 to 5 year Project Plan.