How will we catch up with them …?

Probably many of you still remember the cult show of the great Todor Kolev – “How are we going to catch up with the Americans?”. After the 3-day visit of the Chairman of the Association “Bulgaria is you!” – Eng. Dimitar Kutsarov and the coordinator in Miami, Florida, the answer is – not at all.

And we are not talking about street cleanliness, wages or bread prices. We are talking about professionalism, about responsibility towards one’s profession and the society, about the opportunity for a woman to show that she is capable of leading no worse than any man.

Introducing Digna Abello, the first woman to head the Miami Beach Fire Department in history since its creation (January 26, 1921). With her unanimous appointment, Chief Abello also became the first woman to serve as chief of a municipal fire department in Miami County history, and is the only one in America.

What we saw in her entrusted fire department left us speechless. Starting with the quality and completeness of the equipment, the back-up stations and batteries, the separate offices where professionals monitor the weather conditions so that they can prevent disasters before they happen. We were also impressed by the volunteer network of more than 1500 volunteers set up by Chief Abello, who are informed through a special system when they are needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chief Abello has also been able to reach out to schools to talk to students and teach how to respond to disasters and emergencies, using lectures and hands-on training with specially designed equipment for children. And this is where ‘prevention’ comes to mind – the word we struggle to learn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw another close-knit team that is a family, we saw how a superior and an employee can greet each other cordially and with a hug. We saw how everything was clean and tidy. We saw how in a possible emergency a team can mobilize within 3 minutes.

We also saw a society that respects this profession. A society for which the word “firefighter” is not a name, but a dignified and respected profession.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are happy to share with you that Chief Abello has accepted our invitation to be a guest at our future event where he will award one of the hometown firefighters involved in putting out the wildfires this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We leave you to think about this short text. We leave you with the hope that one day our children will want to be firefighters again – respected and dignified.