In a statement published early this morning on the Facebook page of the volunteer fire department of Mira, located on the northern coast of the Coimbra district, the command acknowledges that there is currently “a conflict between the majority of the active corps and the board” of the humanitarian association, which has been ongoing for months and has recently intensified.
The fire department’s command stated that the two parties have entered “into a deadlock that in no way dignifies the association, but which, due to current circumstances, was inevitable.”
The text also mentions that internal issues – not disclosed – are at the root of the current situation. The command of the Mira volunteer firefighters, “aware of all these divergences and attitudes taken, has always conducted itself responsibly, calling for balance and common sense, so that each party could fulfill its mission.”
However, through the statement, they declare that the fire department’s command “has also ceased to be able to fully dialogue in an institutional manner with the association’s board, which is not at all healthy or compatible with the daily needs of a fire station.”
In the same note, the Mira volunteer fire department’s command informed that due to the conflict with the board, 43 of the 59 firefighters (about 72%) of the active corps “have shown themselves unavailable” to integrate scales of the Special Fire Fighting Device, the Beach Service protocol with the municipality, as well as preventions and representations, “guaranteeing only the services they are obliged to, whether in voluntary or professional regime.”
Hours later, around 3:00 PM today, it was the turn of the board president, Alda Leça, to release a statement on the same page, announcing the resignation of the humanitarian association’s board of directors “with immediate effect.”
In the note released today but dated Thursday, June 8, the Mira Volunteer Firefighters’ board states that they have concluded, “after careful analysis,” that current conditions do not allow for the continuation of their commitment to manage the association.
“A situation has been created that has not been in favor of all parties involved, whether the board or the active corps, compromising the ability to perform functions with the excellence considered necessary and with which we initially committed,” they emphasized.
Although not specifying the reasons for the conflict, Alda Leça revealed that the now-resigned board was aware that the Mira volunteer firefighters’ association “was a ‘complicated’ house to manage, both financially and especially in terms of interpersonal relationships.”
Among other points, the president says that the governing bodies were confronted “with some difficult situations to overcome, typical of managing a house without backstage support, without rules, where employees dictate them and have no openness to change.”
“We recognize that it is a house with many particularities, often atypical, where employees are not employees but superiors, and the board cannot be a board. We know elements that do not know how to respect the colleague next to them, let alone someone who wants to manage them (…). Any element outside that corporation does not and will never have the conditions to assume its management,” Alda Leça emphasized in the note.