Formentera firefighters train in simulated blaze in La Savina port

foto bombers simulacre 2018 3The president's office of the Formentera Council reports that local firefighters were joined by members of the local police, harbour police and civil defence as they took part in an exercise involving a simulated fire affecting a fuel lorry near the petrol station in La Savina harbour.

Typically performed once yearly, simulations of this kind are part of the port's safety strategy and serve to measure the time emergency services take responding to fires and spills.

Today's simulated incident involved the unloading of a fuel lorry with a defective hose that caught fire after suffering an initial leak. The operation consisted in getting the leak under control and then extinguishing the fire all while maintaining safe conditions in the surrounding area and keeping flames from spreading.

Department head Bartomeu Escandell said the exercise was about “gauging collaboration between the port authority and the distinct security and prevention forces of the Formentera Council in emergency situations”. Escandell highlighted the island's recent deployment of a fire engine belonging to Balearic port authority, “it's an extremely useful tool that will help us improve how we prevent and put out fires, both in La Savina's harbour and across the island”.

Beginning at 10.00am and finished by roughly 10.45am, the simulation saw the participation of four firefighters with heavy goods vehicles, six civil protection volunteers with two vehicles, four officers on the local police force and another two from the harbour police.