During the exercise, an Es-Alert message will be sent to confine Casares town and the scattered rural homes around it.
The Andalusian Government’s Delegation in Málaga will coordinate tomorrow, Thursday 15th, through the Andalusian Emergency Agency (EMA), which belongs to the Regional Ministry of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification, a wildfire drill in the municipality of Casares to test the response mechanisms in the event of a real emergency.
This drill, in which more than a hundred personnel will take part, will involve the simulated escalation of the Emergency Plan for Wildfire Risk in Andalucía (Plan Infoca) to emergency phase, operational situation 1, given the large number of scattered homes in the area and its proximity to the town of Casares. It should be remembered that this plan is currently already activated on a continuous basis in pre-emergency phase, operational situation 0, during the period of medium and high wildfire danger in Andalucía.
During this exercise, the municipality of Casares town and the scattered rural homes around it, with an estimated population of more than 3,400 people, will be confined, so preventive confinement messages are due to be sent through the Es-Alert system, also known as reverse 1-1-2. The exercise management has decided to use this warning tool so that residents become familiar with these alert mechanisms, which help ensure their safety and self-protection in emergencies, so the public should not be alarmed or take any action.
In addition, during the exercise it will also be agreed to temporarily move away particularly vulnerable people from homes in El Jaral. This measure is included in the new Territorial Emergency Plan of Civil Protection of Andalucía (PTEAnd). Temporary removal consists of taking residents who are forced to leave their homes as a precaution to a safe place near their residence, without requiring shelter accommodation, because within a short time, once there is no risk, they can return to their homes.
In the days leading up to the drill, information activities about the exercise have been carried out for the people of Casares. The most recent took place yesterday at the Costa Community Social Services of the Provincial Council of Málaga, at the Casares Health Centre and at CEIP Blas Infante, where children were given the ‘Pequeguía’, which contains recommendations on how to act in an emergency.
A fire close to a residential area
The drill will begin at around 9:00 with the arrival of the participating units at the chosen scenario, the Celimas housing development, close to the MA-8300 road, and at 10:000 the practical exercise will start with the fire call to 1-1-2. The fire starts in an area of low scrub in the area of La Jordana and arroyo Hondo, at the foot of a slope, with a prevailing south-easterly wind of 15 kilometres per hour, spreading north-west through gullies, which causes a rapid rate of spread towards the Celimas development and the town of Casares.
Once the simulated fire is declared stabilised and under control, evaluation and assessment meetings will be held in order to draw conclusions and produce analyses that allow continuous improvement of the action procedures, so as to be prepared to provide better care to the public in the event of a real emergency.
The exercise will include the deployment of the Advanced Command Post (PMA) for coordination and decision-making in the emergency, and the simulation of various incidents in the area that the participating units must resolve, among them the removal of two dependent people from their homes, medical assistance for several people affected by smoke inhalation and anxiety attacks, the closure of the MA-8300 road and the cutting of a medium-voltage line because of the proximity of the fire.
Local residents may see an unusual movement of emergency vehicles in the area and should not be concerned, as this is an exercise to test the capabilities of the emergency services and to improve.
The aim of this practical drill is to check the effectiveness of the organisational structure and the intervention procedures for extinguishing wildfires, as well as for protecting the people and forest property that may be affected, in accordance with the Emergency Plan for Wildfires in Andalucía (Infoca).
Deployment of personnel and equipment
The operation will also deploy more than fifty items of equipment and will have around thirty extras, including students and teaching staff, from the Intermediate and Higher Vocational Training courses in Civil Protection and Emergencies at IES Pérez Guzmán in Ronda. Those taking part in the drill include personnel from the EMA (1-1-2, Andalusian Emergency Group, Civil Protection and Infoca), the Andalucía 061 Emergency Centre, the Police Unit Attached to the Autonomous Community, Consortium Firefighters, Casares Local Police, Guardia Civil, Red Cross, Civil Protection volunteer groups from Manilva, Estepona and Marbella; the local Civil Protection service of Estepona Town Hall, personnel from the Emergency Radio Amateurs Network (Remer), the Social Work Association, and the Community Social Service of the Provincial Council of Málaga, as well as the Psychological Intervention Group in Emergencies and Disasters (Giped).
