Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1497523
awareness raising among the representatives of the authorities, within the scope of ensuring the safety of the Polish citizens. Unfortunately, as we can see at the local level in particular, we observe no such growth of awareness. We are, however, enjoying a festival of blame-shifting - the local authorities blame the government, and another way around, with press conferences during which reality is distorted. This includes ridiculous statements suggesting that Warsaw offers 7 million square meters of shelter and bunker area for the citizen. Above that, a legislative vacuum has been placed. Incompetency levels are puzzling, especially at the top of the power structure, in the area related to the protection of civilians. And here, the political option does not matter. According to data released in the records gathered by the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Poland has more than 62,000 shelters (bunkers and hideouts) at its disposal. Unfortunately, analyzing that data based on the criteria stipulated within the latest normative acts (guidelines issued by the Head of the State's Civil Defense on December 4th, 2018) there are just a few functional shelters accessible to civilians. According to definitions contained in the aforesaid document, shelter is described as a "Protective building of an enclosed structure, sealed-off, protecting persons, hardware, material resources, or other material goods from the assumed strike factors that may influence what's inside from defined directions". That definition means that any shelter, putting its structure aside, would also need to be sealed off, meaning that it should be capable of separating what's inside from the liquids, dust, and gases that could potentially get into the shelter from the outside. That capacity is ensured by several specific steps ANALYSIS