State Fire Service (Polish: Państwowa Straż Pożarna, PSP) has already provided the Ukrainian forces with 206 fire trucks and 2767 pallets of fire equipment. Moreover, Polish firemen helped with transferring vehicles from other countries to Ukraine. The first works started two days after the outbreak of the war. However, the Polish PSP does not stop helping people. They continue with gathering the essential equipment and are involved in assistance activities.
Since then, a total of 206 fire-fighting vehicles and 2767 pallets of fire-fighting equipment have been handed over from Poland. The equipment included: personal protective equipment, incl. special clothing (25,991 sets), helmets (34,967), protective gloves (18067), firefighter’s boots (15316), 71 thermal imaging cameras, almost 2 thousand medical bags, and almost 30 thousand pieces of fire hoses.
Since March 2 this year, State Fire Service has also been coordinating the process of handing over to the Ukrainian side fire-fighting equipment from all over the world. They assisted during the transport of equipment from the Netherlands, Italy, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Estonia, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Sweden, France, Canada, and the USA.
Polish firefighters are also ready to help refugees. In addition, PSP firemen with professional qualifications as paramedics take part in medical train trips to Ukraine. So far, they have participated in eight train trips in which 40 firefighters were involved.
The formation was also involved in ensuring and coordinating the transport of people from border crossings to reception points and from reception points to places of stay in the province and the country, transport of food, trunks, mattresses, bedding, blankets, and other things to reception points and accommodation places. Firefighters also put up pneumatic tents with heaters, which were stowed as common places to warm up for people waiting for transport.
The firefighters also coordinated the work of volunteers at railway and bus stations designated by voivodes and carried out other activities supporting the maintenance of reception points and accommodation places. From the beginning of the war until the end of July, approx. 91 thousand people were involved in aid activities for Ukraine. Firefighters provided approx. 40.6 thousand firefighting vehicles from fire protection units. At the culminating moment of the action, over 1,200 firefighters were involved in the operation.