It only took a minute and a half to evacuate 680 students from the CEIP Playa Blanca accompanied by their teachers who participated this Thursday morning in the drill organized by the Yaiza City Council to improve the fire action plan at the infant and primary education center in the event of an emergency fire situation, an exercise lasting an hour and a half in total, including alert, evacuation, rescue of an affected person, fire extinguishing and building ventilation, which had the human and technical support of the Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium, the Yaiza Civil Protection Group and the Yaiza Local Police, and of course, the invaluable collaboration of the students, management team, teaching staff and administrative and maintenance personnel of the school.
The objective of the drill, which is part of the road safety and emergency prevention plan of the schools, is to improve the "coordination and measure the reaction capacity and response time" of the security and emergency services and the response of the center's population, in this sense, the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, highlights "the implementation of the evacuation protocol by the students and teachers and the response of the security and emergency forces".
Three professional firefighters from the Consortium, eleven Civil Protection volunteers and two local police officers participated, in addition to the technical resources deployed: a fire truck, four Civil Protection vehicles, including the ambulance where the teacher affected by smoke inhalation was transferred to the Playa Blanca health center, and a police patrol in charge of ordering traffic and guiding the parking of the intervening services.
The Councilor for Civil Protection and Citizen Security of Yaiza, Beatriz Vázquez, declares that "in the drill we were able to verify how well the students have learned the school's evacuation plan and its application together with their teachers." The councilor also emphasizes "the predisposition and professionalism of all the people and entities participating, which gives society an extra peace of mind in case of emergencies, because although we are prepared, it is always advisable to update and improve coordination."
