The event, in which a man was rescued in Arrecife after being trapped inside one of the water treatment tanks, has surprised the people of Lanzarote. As La Voz published last Friday, the man, who was trying to stay afloat for almost five hours clinging to a plastic tube, was transferred to Molina Orosa with signs of hypothermia, weakness and difficulty communicating.
One of the agents of the Citizen Attention Operational Group, Dimas Manuel Vaquero, has related this Monday and during an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, the spectacular rescue in which several agents of the capital's police had to collaborate. Around noon on Friday, it was the security guard of Decathlon who made the warning after hearing "voices of help". "It was a strange call, he told us that he heard someone asking for help," said the agent.
Immediately, three of the agents quickly moved to the area, at which point he remembers that they were "expectant". They could not understand what was happening, considering that the deposit was closed to the public. "We went with a strange feeling, since the treatment plant is a closed place and to which no one accesses," Dimas recalled.
At first, around 5:51 p.m., they accessed the deposit by jumping over a fence, when they proceeded to check the five tanks inside. "When we arrived we didn't hear anything, but after climbing each deposit, we managed to see the affected person," he added. A situation that they "did not expect" to find when touring the site. "The man was perched on the side of the deposit. Thank God he had the plastic tube at hand and was able to grab it," he stressed.
The 29-year-old man was "very tired" after the five hours he had to remain inside the tank. "He was there from one in the afternoon," he pointed out. The agents found him in a state of severe hypothermia. "He was tired, his voice could barely be heard and his eyes were red," he added.
The young man used his cunning to save himself and protect his life for hours. As he could not get his footing in the water, he chose to "hold on to the wall with a rope and a plastic tube" and "take off the clothes" he was wearing, in order to stay afloat. "He was naked so as not to sink further with the weight," Dimas revealed.
The agents had to maneuver quickly to get the injured man out of the tank. "With the same tube he was holding on to, the three agents managed to push him to the outside," he revealed. After getting out of the water, he had to be attended to by the Police. "We covered him as best we could until the arrival of assistance," he added.
The "good coordination" between the agents was what made the rescue a success. "The colleagues who did not get to enter the deposit were the ones who called the health services," he pointed out. An assistance that was crucial to save the life of the foreigner residing in Lanzarote, who had entered the deposit to take photographs of some birds.
The agent has recognized the mental and physical strength that the young man had. "After all, the boy fought it well." Seeing himself submerged in the water and in the solitude of the moment, the man "saw the sky open" when he was rescued, the agent concluded.
