The device had already been joined by the insular director of Security of the Tenerife island institution, Rubén Fernández, who in the days prior to the eruption and subsequently participated in the Technical Management Committee, assuming on several occasions the technical management of Pevolca.
Since that date, more than one hundred personnel (50 professional firefighters and 54 volunteers) have participated in the emergency device.
These teams are integrated into the Intervention Group of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca), which has the functions of rescue, salvage and damage reduction in the emergency zone and to which other intervention services such as firefighters of other Canary Islands services and consortia, forest fire teams, Military Emergency Unit and Civil Protection organizations, among others.
After the cutting by the flows, of the roads that connect the municipalities of the Aridane Valley with the south of the island, the resources of the Tenerife Consortium were assigned to the southern area of the flows, so that, in addition to intervening in the emergency zone, they are the response team for any fire incident, search and rescue or traffic accidents that may occur in the municipality of Fuencaliente and south of Los Llanos de Aridane, El Paso, Tazacorte and Mazo.
The base of this team is located in the Mirador del Charco (Fuencaliente), on the edge of the perimeter of the emergency zone.
Thus, there is a small fire station with a tent that performs the functions of stay and logistics, three trucks, two vans and several off-road transport and support vehicles.
The trucks displaced are type BUP (Heavy Urban Pump), units equipped with an assortment of material, machinery and tools to respond to a wide typology of emergencies, with a staff of four to five firefighters with their protective equipment.
The vans displaced are a URE (Special Rescue Unit), equipped for search and rescue tasks in the urban or natural environment and a command post van, from which a technician from the Firefighters Coordination Service (Bravo Tango) manages the permanent communication with the emergency management, records the interventions and manages all the needs of the firefighters team.
Protective equipment is one of the most considered aspects in this deployment.
Thus, material has been sent to the island to guarantee protection against an indefinite number of risks, including indoor and outdoor fire intervention suits, harnesses and fasteners for work at height, autonomous breathing equipment or suits. anti-splatter.
Also particularly noteworthy is the protection for interventions in environments with poor quality air or with polluted air: gas masks, twin-bottle self-contained breathing apparatus for a longer intervention time and gas detectors.
The intervention team is organized into two teams: one of professional firefighters with the function of immediate intervention in any emergency, so its location and the type of work carried out should not reduce the times and capacities of this response, and another team of the associations of voluntary firefighters agreed with the Consortium, with a function of supporting the professional staff and whose activity and location are not so conditioned.
However, it is endeavored that both teams are in close proximity for mutual assistance and control by the professional command.
The work has focused on supporting and providing protection to scientific and preventive teams in maintenance and repair of basic services (telephony, communications, water, electricity), surveillance, inspection and assessment of infrastructures, housing, evacuations, and accompaniment and assistance to people in accessing their properties to collect goods.
MORE THAN 120 PERFORMANCES
Along with this protection work, an average of three to four daily actions (more than 120 since the beginning of the eruption) have been carried out in shoring works, unloading weight of ash from roofs, putting down fires, rescuing people or animals. , accident relief or access cleaning, support for other services.
The Firefighters Consortium has also collaborated with the assistance of technical personnel in advisory, direction and coordination tasks in the Pevolca management scale.
In this way, the president of the Consortium has exercised the functions of technical director of the plan, coordinating the work of the Scientific Committee, Management Committee and transfer of instructions to the Advanced Command Post.
The Consortium officer and non-commissioned officer take turns in the service of chief or person in charge of the Intervention Group that, daily, coordinates twelve to fifteen entities with more than 250 personnel deployed in the emergency zone.
On the other hand, several controls take turns in the service of intervention technician in the Advanced Command Post.
The relays are produced periodically to guarantee maximum efficiency in the actions, which are always coordinated with the management of Pevolca.
