EMERCOM OF RUSSIA: THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

September 1991. A 700 tonne chunk of a 150-meter long pipe was broken and came to a stand still swinging 120 meters above highly explosive material at the Ufa oil refinery. According to estimates, the effect of it’s fall would have been equivalent to grade 9 earthquake.  As a result of such a catastrophe the Bashkerian capital could have been wiped off the face of the Earth…..

The unique rescue operation to deal with this emergency has entered the Guiness Book of Records. Thet’s how the whole world heard for the first time about the Russian resquers.

 EMERCOM OF RUSSIA: THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

At the time when the town of Ufa was threatened by what could have been a massive chemical explosion the Rescue Service in Russia was very young – not even one year old since it’s first appearance as a certain institution. The Russian Rescue Corps was established in December 1990 in order to give quick response to all sorts of emergencies and to provide safety for those in affected areas of the country. In 1991 the Rescue corps had been transformed into Emergency And Civil Defense State Committee. Sergey Shoigu has been appointed head of the Committee in April 1991.

It’s been now over a decade since what is now known as the EMERCOM of Russia was born.  It’s been a long, hard and – yet – successful way to where we are now.  We’ve done a lot in order to provide a better and safer environment, to forecast and, if possible, prevent some devastating accidents, to help all those affected by emergencies to live through what had happened and start a new and sometimes even better life.  Today the EMERCOM of Russia is an efficient, quick and powerful relief agency, capable of fighting the disasters’ consequences as well as forecasting and preventing those disasters from happening – wherever and whenever possible.

 THE PEACEFUL FORCES OF EMERCOM

In November 1991 the president of Russia issued a decree to put the civil defence forces under the command of The Russian Rescue Corps ( the GKCHS committee at the time) . That’s when the EMERCOM of Russia has been established in it’s present form.

Bringing relief to Georgian civilians locked in the Georgian-Ossetian ethnic conflict zone was the first humanitarian mission carried out by Russian rescuers in 1993. The mission included setting up a hospital in Beslan and deploying camping areas for refugees. That work proved to be successful:   the peacekeepers finally managed to stop  bloodshed in the region.

 PROFESSION - RESCUER

In 1992 to the list of jobs officially registered and licensed by the Russian authorities “rescuer” has been added. Since then more than 110 rescue operations were conducted, over 70 tonnes of humanitarian goods delivered and over 2 million people rescued from disasters. 

Today The Search And Rescue Service of EMERCOM of Russia consists of 33 state budget-funded units with 3700 members of staff. There are altogether eight SRS Centers: seven in Russia’s federal districts and one in Kaliningrad. There are also emergency-and-rescue units funded from local budgets in different parts of the country. There are currently more than 350 of these units with 10.5 thousand staff members. The State Small Vessels Committee’s Water Rescue units are also controlled by the SRS since 2005.

The SRS employs 137 rescuers of the highest international rank. However, all the service’s rescuers are qualified to do virtually any work they might need to do; wherever, whenever and whatever is needed to help somebody out.

Specialized units of EMERCOM are responsible for rescuers working with specially trained sniffer dogs. They took part in salvation works after the Moscow houses’ explosions, the earthquakes in Neftegorsk, Columbia, Turkey, India, and Indonesia, the Asian Tsunami and many other disasters.

De-mining experts have contributed a lot to boost the humanitarian image of Russia. They’ve worked on de-mining long stretches of land in Afganistan, Bosnia and Hercegovina, in Croatia and Kosovo, having cleared thousands of explosives thousands of square meters of land.

  HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES

The world we live in today is full of  unpredictable dangers. No country is fully secure. Natural disasters or man-caused accidents can happen anywhere anytime. Rapid emergency humanitarian response is one of the crucial  tasks and one of the most important duties of  the Russian Emergency Ministry. Impartiality, neutrality and humanity are the values we respect, following the UN Charter guidelines.

In winter 1993 civil population of  Tkvarcheli  in Abkhazia was starving in a blockade lasting for months. Russian rescuers were distributing food parcels, medicines and clothing to locals using helicopters; taking elderly, women, children and seriously ill people out of the conflict zone on their way back. The second stage of the humanitarian operation commenced in summer 1993, when sugar and food parcels had been delivered to Tkvarcheli by a column of special search and rescue emergency trucks. During that time over 3 thousand people were evacuated to Russia.

The geography of Russian rescuers’ humanitarian operations is virtually the whole world.  Russian EMERCOM specialists have participated in international search and rescue operations more than 30 times, with biggest missions carried out in Turkey, Afghanistan, Greece, Columbia, India, Algeria, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Taiwan.

THE FIREFIGHTERS

The Russian State Fire Service is part of Russia’s EMERCOM since 2001.

The State Fire Service (SFS) has professional staff, modern equipment and good facilities for training and research. Every year the fire brigades are called out to almost 2 000 000 fires. And every year the SFS firefighters save over 70 thousand lives.

There are over 250 thousand industrial fires breaking, taking more than 20 thousand lives and bringing multi-billion damages across Russia annually.

Statistics show the majority of fires are residential and industrial. The main reasons for the fires to break are: casual handling of open fire (including by people under effect of alcohol or drugs), ignoring fire safety rules in daily life, misuse of heating devices e.t.c.

 The SFS units currently work with more than 17.5 thousand pieces of professional equipment and 55 fire fighting boats.

The federal “Fire Safety Act” of 1994 is the main law regulating fire fighting activities in Russia. Apart from that, there are over 200 other rules and regulations, which control the fire fighting activities alongside with the Act.

 The Institute for Fire Defense and Scientific research and 70 special laboratories are responsible for the SFS scientific support, new technologies and methods of work.

One of the most important areas of SFS activities is fire safety inspection. Every year, the inspectors carry out over 4 000 000 checks, followed by 12 000 000 recommendations on fire safety. According to statistics, regular unspection helps to prevent up to 900 thousand fires every year, saving up to  85 billion rubles possible damages.

For the first time in recent decade the number of fires and casualties has decreased significantly in 2004. It became possible thanks to the new organizational and engineering, such as regular safety checks, new measures taken in order to prevent fires, raising fire safety awareness among general public e.t.c.       Members of Russian parliament and the Russian Insurance Union are currently working on Fire Safety Insurance legislation.

 RESCUE ON WATER

Providing safety on water is another major responsibility of EMERCOM of Russia. 
The State Small Vessels Inspection of Russia (SSVI) has been established in 1984; however, it was only in August 2003 when the Inspection has been transferred under the EMERCOM authority. The Inspection is currently responsible for 915 thousand of small vessels of different kinds, including yachts and motorboats; over 180 thousand people have been rescued at seas and on water by SSVI staff.

The Inspection is also responsible for classification, state registration and record of the vessels; it assigns state registration number and issues a special paper to every yacht, boat or ship under SSVI supervision. The Inspection experts are working on a Unified Vessel Register that must contain information on all registered ships, their owners and their users.

The Inspection is also responsible for training, examinations and navigation licensing.