Ghodratollah Mohammadi, CEO of Tehran’s Fire Department and head of the Firefighters’ Task Force, announced that due to severe economic problems, some cities in Iran do not even have enough funds to purchase firefighting uniforms.
On Monday, September 29, Mohammadi said: “One firefighting uniform now costs 3 million rials (about $2,730). Some cities cannot even afford to buy firefighting uniforms and are really struggling to pay their [employees’] salaries.”
He called for firefighting shortages to be addressed through the national budget and added: “A large portion of firefighting equipment is imported, and customs exemptions for rescue equipment need to be considered.”
This is not the first time firefighters have protested shortages of equipment and livelihood hardships.
These problems have become particularly evident during crises such as forest fires or building accidents.
Experts say mismanagement, flawed domestic and foreign policies, and the squandering of national resources have led to much of Iran’s budget being spent on the regime’s nuclear and missile programs as well as support for proxy groups in the region, while insufficient attention is given to strengthening civilian infrastructure and public services such as firefighting.
Exhausted forces, worn-out equipment, and a shortage of 3,000 vehicles
The state-run news website Rokna, in a report marking September 29 as Firefighting and Safety Day in Iran, listed “a shortage of nearly 3,000 vehicles, outdated equipment over 25 years old, a lack of specialized personnel, and the absence of basic facilities” as the main challenges facing firefighting in the country.
The report stated: “Many stations in small towns do not even have a single working fire hydrant. In industrial towns, villages, and dilapidated urban areas, a small incident can turn into a disaster, because firefighters must travel tens of kilometers with outdated vehicles to reach the scene.”
Rokna warned that in the event of an earthquake similar to the devastating 2003 Bam earthquake, no city in Iran would “have the ability to cope,” and in such a situation, firefighters themselves, already facing shortages of equipment and resources, would be the first victims.
The outlet also pointed to the “transfer of non-specialized personnel from other departments and high physical strain” in the firefighting profession, adding that firefighters are forced to “save lives with tired bodies and minds, under conditions where international standards are not observed.”
In May, media outlets reported that one of the reasons for the slow firefighting operations at Rajaei Port was the poor state of firefighting facilities in the area, to the extent that in some cases there wasn’t even a bulldozer available to build embankments.
