More than 10 million Romanians were directly involved in information and risk prevention actions through 40,000 activities carried out by the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), in partnership with E.ON and Delgaz Grid, in the last ten years. At the same time, every year, approximately 5 million people were the beneficiaries of the campaigns carried out through all information channels, within the “Together for Safety” partnership. The value of investments in this project already amounts to 8.85 million euros.
Signed in 2012, in the context in which there was an intensification of both the types of risk and their frequency, which threatened people’s property or lives, the role of the “Together for safety” partnership proved to be essential in educating and informing the population about adopting preventive behavior related to the safe use of electricity and gas sources, as well as other types of risks.
Information efforts also bear fruit in the area of activity of Delgaz Grid, part of the E.ON Romania Group. Thus, the number of explosions was reduced by almost half (47%) in the 2013-2022 period compared to the annual average of the 2007-2012 interval. The number of victims decreased by almost 35%, and that of deceased persons by 40%. Regarding carbon monoxide intoxication, the reduction is about 58%. The number of victims affected by smoke inhalation also decreased by 65%, and that of deceased persons by 66%.
“During the ten years of partnership, we managed to implement a series of extraordinary initiatives and, by joining forces, we gave people the information they need to prevent dangerous situations. The results are visible, the incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning and explosions in our company’s area of activity have halved. Of great importance, in addition to the information campaigns, were the investments made since entering the Romanian market, of around 2 billion euros, of which 1.5 billion euros in the natural gas and energy distribution network electric,” says Volker Raffel, CEO of E.ON Romania.
The need for awareness and education campaigns regarding risk avoidance is also confirmed by the results of an IRES survey, carried out at the request of the IGSU. According to him, 83% of respondents state that they want more information about how to act in emergency situations. Regarding the risk situations on which a possible communication campaign should be focused, the most cited emergency situations are house fire (62%), children’s safety (43%) and earthquake (34%).
Approximately 6,500 house fires occurred, on average, annually in Romania in the last ten years, according to IGSU data, as a result of which 5,905 victims were registered, of which 2,025 died. Most of the incidents usually happen in the cold season, when, against the background of low temperatures, there is an increase in the number of household fires, and the elderly and children are the main victims.
The main causes of fires in the last ten years are the use of faulty or unclean chimneys (31%), faulty or improvised electrical installations (23%) and faulty, improvised or unattended heating means (12%). Gas leaks were another cause of emergency situations, so that in the last 10 years, 800 incidents were recorded nationally, as a result of which 210 people were injured and 40 died.