Brussels firefighters’ unions have welcomed an emergency meeting of the Brussels government on Thursday to address chronic staff shortages and underfunding, warning that public safety is now at risk.
The regional government is due to meet online at midday, after talks with the striking unions ended without agreement.
The joint union front began an open-ended strike on Tuesday and says urgent action is needed to strengthen staffing and operational capacity.
Steven Gilissen of the ACV union said that on Thursday morning only 38 of the service’s 172 staff were on duty.
He warned that this would leave the brigade able to deploy only around two pump engines and two ladder trucks to respond to fires.
"Today, the safety of Brussels residents is in real danger because of a political error," Gilissen said.
The unions say the required language framework for recruitment will not be ready for another two months, meaning new staff could not start work for at least five months. In their view, that is far too late to deal with the current crisis.
They also argue that a proposal to allocate about €1 million to the fire service is insufficient, because it is not backed by a costed and dated commitment to immediately reinforce watch staffing and operational resources.
"The government does not have much room for manoeuvre left," Gilissen said. "I hope politicians understand the need to take targeted short-term measures. At the moment, they are playing with fire."
Gilissen said he hoped the failure to resolve staff grievances would not lead to "an avoidable disaster" before action is finally taken.
