The Arrecife City Council has tested this Tuesday the incorporation of special drones for maritime rescue and salvage tasks. The mayor of the city, Yonathan de León, accompanied by the Councilor for Security and Emergencies, Kevin Cortés, and the Councilor of the Security and Emergency Consortium of Lanzarote, Kiko Aparicio, participated in the morning in a simulation where a special drone, suitable for emergency and maritime rescue work, launched a life jacket to prevent drowning on the coast of the capital of Lanzarote.
Yonathan de León has detailed that the Local Police has a 'Drone Unit' that has performed "important services in large concentrations of people." And now, what the City Council is evaluating is to have these "special drones, with the capacity to carry up to 4 kilograms of weight, and operate in situations of storms or strong inclemencies in the sea and air, to participate in maritime rescue operations, guided from land."
The mayor highlighted that these same drones were deployed last Friday to monitor, in real time, the arrival of the 'Dana' to Arrecife and to be able to act with "more precision minimizing the displacements of the heavy rains" from the periphery of the city towards the center, through the existing ravines in the high areas of Arrecife.
The Councilor for Security and Emergencies, Kevin Cortés, has detailed that in recent weeks the Civil Protection forces have participated in the "training and handling courses of these drones", with the specialized personnel of 'General Drones'.
The CEO of 'General Drones', Adrián Plaza, present during the simulation, has detailed the means that his firm has "experience in the Mediterranean area" in the application of these means for maritime rescue and emergency tasks.
The drones, suitable for operating in harsh weather conditions, have an autonomy to "sweep a strip of coastline of 6 kilometers, with a radius of 3 kilometers", Plaza has informed. Thus, Arrecife becomes an "ideal municipality in the Canary Islands due to its maritime front to cover its needs for rescue and assistance with a single team".
The immediacy capacity of these drones allows to assist possible people who are drowning near the coast, launching the life jacket, until the auxiliary rescue team arrives from land.
The main beach of Arrecife, El Reducto, has a lifeguard and security service every day of the year, to which the city council could incorporate these aerial means in these tasks. In addition, in the capital of Lanzarote is located the main port area that could require this type of assistance.
The simulation also involved personnel from the Security and Emergency Consortium, Local Police, and Civil Protection. Also present were the councilors of Beaches and Environment, Davinia Déniz, and other councilors of the Government group.
The mayor concluded his statements, recalling that "the assessment we make of these systems will allow Arrecife to lead new systems in maritime rescue in beach areas, and port coastline".
The simulation ended this morning, after a life jacket was launched from a drone, until the arrival of the rescue team from land, supported by a jet ski, which carried out the rescue and transfer of the person who suffered the drowning in the coastal area of Arrecife, in front of the premises of the central headquarters of the Local Police.
