In 2016 they were the Power Rangers uniforms, ordered and then, fortunately, never worn. This year some patches, at least two but perhaps even three, appeared on the uniforms of the firefighters who were called to parade at the Imperial Forums on the occasion of today’s Republic Day.
“They are not authorized by the department and do not represent us: we don’t really use them, they were purchased for the occasion,” he complains Costantino Saporito, trade unionist of the USB Coordination of the Fire Brigade and professional instructor. In a sector that complains of a lack of resources and personnel – “a national body that is falling to pieces” – Saporito adds – the choice to adorn the policemen who parade in front of the highest officials of the State is more strident every year. “The same ones who forget about us and then applaud us during tragedies and catastrophes”, complains the trade unionist.
The writing 2 June and the tricolor
In one of the three patches the writing “2 June” stands out with a tricolor, while in another the Colosseum is depicted, reserved for the uniforms of those who hoisted the giant flag that today surrounds the monument. “But when we do a qualification step, when we become foreman, for example, the decorations are never found,” continues Saporito. This image of the firefighters, which the union defines as artificial and superficial, is also repeated in the suits worn today by the Fiamme Rosse sports group, unofficial and never distributed before to the athletes. “Rather than this reassuring and clean representation, with brand-new vehicles and new uniforms, it would have been better to have us paraded as we really are: dirty with dust, mud and sweat. Just like when we bring help to people.”
The initiative of the commander of the Fire Prevention Schools
The initiative, the union reports, would be from a Commander of the Central Fire Fighting Schools, who would have purchased gadgets with State funds and who, they report, would have easily diverted the figures several times to look after the image of the firefighters. “As also happened at Giorgia Meloni’s swearing-in ceremony with the guard of honour, when an attempt was made to make a body that is not militaristic. The Court of Auditors should do a good check”, they urge.
The complaint: “There is a lack of men and means”
The problem would not lie so much in the cost – probably negligible – for the creation of the patches affixed to around fifty uniforms. But in a disrespectful waste of funds, while “at a national level the offices are destroyed and dilapidated and there is no money to fix the vehicles. We don’t care about a patch.” If you have to wait two years to get a new uniform, they report, you will have to wait until 2036 for 80 new vehicles to be made available for the entire national territory, made up, however, of 110 commands in total. “Today at the command of Rome the most important departure we have was registered in ’97 and there are only two ladder trucks, one in the station and one in Ostia”.
If the European average is one policeman for every 1500 inhabitants, in a city like Rome the proportion becomes one for every 25 thousand: 1850 in total on duty, of which 105 are operational on each shift. Slightly better in Milan, one for every 18 thousand, and in Naples, one for every 16 thousand inhabitants, or 30 policemen operating at a time. “What people don’t know is that every policeman doesn’t remember successful operations, but never forgets those that went badly – concludes the trade unionist -. And every time we intervene we do so in unpredictable conditions, without support, without psychological support and without the professionalism we would need.”
