GOVERNMENT WANTS TO EXPAND THE ALBUFERA

WHILE the Balearic government is hoping to be granted European Union money to help fund the purchase of more land around the Albufera natural park on the outskirts of Alcudia, the Ministry for the Environment and the Civil Protection department have joined forces to set up a special Public Safety Institute near the natural park. On Thursday the new centre was officially unveiled in the presence of Balearic Environment Minister, Margalida Rossello and Interior Minister, Josep Maria Costa. Costa explained that the centre has been set up in order to make sure that forest fire fighters are as well prepared and trained as possible. At the moment it takes fire fighters 13 minutes to respond to a forest fire, the authorities want to reduce that time to 12 minutes and cut the time it takes fire crews to bring possible fires under control from six to five minutes. Rossello said that this year, the forest fire fighters will have battled nearly 100 fires, but it has been the increasingly efficient response from the fire crews that have, so far, prevented any of the forest fires from developing into a major incident.