On the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Hungarian Firefighter Association, on the Day of Firefighters, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán greeted members of the organisation in a message, wishing them all the very best during their service in “the next century and a half”.

According to the information of Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief, in a message addressed to President of the Hungarian Firefighter Association Tibor Dobson, the Prime Minister wrote it is an old truth that service rendered in the interest of one’s own community is what gives life meaning. One and a half centuries ago, this is what Count Ödön Széchenyi recognised when he established the Hungarian Firefighter Association. We Hungarians are proud that the initiative that he started has grown into a strong community of comrades-in-arms, he added.

Mr Orbán believes that on this anniversary, in addition to celebrating, we must also remember the brave volunteer firefighters who were ready to risk their lives, even during the worst times of adversity in Hungarian history, to save their settlements and the security of those living there. Mr Orbán highlighted that to this day we should be proud of them for standing their ground at times such as the 2013 great Danube flood or last summer during the elimination of the damage caused by storms in Szabolcs.

“On behalf of every Hungarian, I would like to thank you for proving, from one alert to the next, that our compatriots in trouble can always rely on Hungarian volunteer firefighters,” the Prime Minister wrote on the Day of Saint Florian, patron saint of firefighters.

(The Prime Minister / MTI)