Local forces at the ready
Emergency exercise held to test coordination and response of different services in the area
A LARGE-scale emergency response drill took place in Cala Finestrat on Tuesday lunchtime.
It involved the fire brigade, National Police, Guardia Civil, Benidorm Red Cross, and local police forces from Finestrat, Benidorm and La Nucía.
Many local residents and holidaymakers were taken aback at the sound of multiple sirens racing to smoke coming from a highrise building – but a drone flying overhead from Finestrat local police announced to bystanders that it was a simulation.
The exercise was primarily to check the condition and functioning of equipment and co-ordination responses between emergency services.
The first was a high-rise building fire, which tested the dry hosing that goes from street level to each floor – a legal requirement for all new buildings.
This facilitates the task of firefighters not having to carry excess hoses up to the top of skyscrapers, just connecting to the water supply on each floor.
Another exercise was assisting an ambulance crew to extract a patient from a high rise building, and also for a fire crew to abseil down the facade to access an apartment from the balcony where an elderly resident had fallen and was unresponsive.
Mayors from Finestrat, Juan Fransisco Pérez and La Nucía, Bernabé Cano attended
alongside provincial deputy for emergencies Javier Sendra.
The exercise was organised by the Alicante provincial government, Finestrat town hall and property managers as part of the prevention and safety plan against fires in high rise buildings. A spokesperson for the provincial fire brigade said they had also tested evacuation times for removing injured people.