The Mijas Fire Brigade continues working and training to improve its response to risk situations, such as traffic accidents. On Tuesday 18th they carried out extrication practices in the Operational Services building in La Cala, using disused municipal vehicles and with the collaboration of Civil Protection volunteers, who played the role of victims.  

The simulation recreated the following emergency scenario: collision of two vehicles on the road with one person hit by a car and two injured with polytraumatisms of varying severity in each car, so that the fire brigade had to act immediately to extract the victims and provide them with initial medical attention. 

"The aim of these drills is to use the different cutting tools we have, as well as the spine boards to take the victims out, the collars and other cervical immobilisers to get them out with the least possible damage", explained Antonio Villalba, the crew manager of the Fire and Rescue Service of Mijas.

Ángel Vázquez was one of the Civil Protection volunteers who on Tuesday put himself in the shoes of a victim: "I had to be in the driver's seat, with the car overturned to the left and with a crash barrier stuck through it. It was a bit overwhelming, especially because you think that there are people who have really been through this, but I felt safe and my colleagues from the fire brigade did a great job, talking to me, calming me down despite the noise of the engines... it was amazing".

Up to 15 firefighters from Mijas took part in this practice, each one with a well-defined role, some of them in charge of handling the tools and others taking on the tasks of rescuing and assisting the victims. This is a necessary training that should be carried out with some frequency, at least every time that vehicles are available, the ones used on this occassion were from the municipal fleet, were no longer in use and has been decommissioned. "Here in Mijas we have a conflictive stretch in the motorway, with dangerous bends in La Cala and El Faro and traffic accidents, unfortunately, occur often", recalled the councillor Fire Brigade Councillor, Francisco Jerez (Vox), who also went to the Operational Services building to see the activity. The councillor also valued the importance of these activities "so that the personnel know how to use all the machinery, both the old ones that use hydraulic oil and the modern ones that do not use cables". 

In addition to these practices, there are others throughout the year related to firefighting, natural phenomena and rescue at heights, among others. Because as Villalba concluded, "you play how you train, so it is essential that firefighters are continuously trained in order to be effective in real emergency situations".

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