"The chain of absurdities is so great that delving into each one of them makes your insides churn. At least, for those who are not too busy trying to ensure that the death of a five-year-old child does not ...
"The chain of absurdities is so great that delving into each one of them makes your insides churn. At least, for those who are not too busy trying to ensure that the death of a five-year-old child does not splash them. Now, there are promises from the Port Authority and the Cabildo has opened preliminary investigations to find out what happened and why the rescue means failed. Maybe it will serve for something. Maybe this time we will learn our lesson. In the best of cases, a solution will be given to an aberrant issue from thousands of aspects. But it cost Dylan his life. At least, it should cost more than one their job."
This is how the editorial published by La Voz de Lanzarote ended three years ago. As expected, that heartbreaking event that took place in Puerto Naos did not "cost" anyone their job, but what is even more worrying is that it did not serve as a lesson either. Three years later, the same debate about the island's security and emergency resources is back on the table. Three years later, the shortcomings, the lack of coordination and even the shameful battles in a subject as sensitive as maritime rescues are once again highlighted.
On that night of November 1, 2008, members of the fire department, Emerlan and the Red Cross watched from land as a car sank with a child inside, because they did not have the minimum essential equipment to jump into the water. Not even a flashlight. It was a sports diver from the Pastinaca club, Daniel Corujo, who went to the area when he heard what was happening and managed to rescue Dylan's body, with "the last breath of life." When Daniel arrived at the port, in the water there was only a local police officer who could not contain his impotence and had jumped into the water "in the dark, without glasses, without being able to see" and was "touching a vehicle upside down." This is how Daniel Corujo related it at the time, who did not hide his anger and pain for what happened.
At that time, the Cabildo announced that it had opened an investigation to determine what had failed. Where was the material that the firefighters should have had and that, as was denounced then, had been delivered to Emerlan, while the latter claimed that its response time is 15 to 20 minutes, because it works with volunteer divers, "who do not perform on-site guard 24 hours a day."
The then Security Councilor, Ramón Bermúdez, refused in his day to make public the report with the conclusions. Three years later, the report is still not seeing the light and will sleep in some drawer of the Corporation, while the problems are repeated.
The last trigger that has set off the alarms is in the death that was recorded last Sunday, when a fisherman was swept away by a wave and disappeared into the sea. Little could be done to save his life, but yes to recover the body as soon as possible, to give at least a little peace of mind to his family in the midst of the tragedy. And on this occasion, it can be said that the professional divers located the body on the first dive? but, yes, the day after he disappeared. That is, they rescued the body 24 hours later, despite the fact that troops from different bodies had been deployed in the area shortly after the event occurred.
Now, the war has broken out again. The Asipal union of the fire department denounces that they still do not have material, that they have precarious boats and that they do not even receive training courses for rescues at sea. Emerlan complains that they were in the area from 12 noon on Sunday, but that they were not allowed to jump into the water, waiting for a special group from the Civil Guard that has the powers to carry out this type of intervention, but which has its base in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. And then we wonder why there are bodies that have never been recovered, and people who have disappeared on the island and have never been heard from again?
Unfortunately, Lanzarote is once again revealing its worst side, and in a vital issue. How is it possible that thirteen people have died so far this year on the island's coasts and that we are in the middle of a brawl of demands and disputes between different bodies of professionals and volunteers?
To all this we must add the threat that the Red Cross has launched this week, which denounces that they have not been paid for nine months for the surveillance services they provide on several beaches on the island and warns that if the Cabildo does not pay them the 300,000 euros it owes them, they will withdraw the surveillance service. Is this what the creation of a Security and Emergency Consortium has led us to, supposedly to improve coordination and optimize resources?
While the institutions continue to waste money, are they not able to dedicate resources to an essential service? Is it so difficult to distribute the powers in the face of each type of event, and clarify whether it is the firefighters or any other body that should be in charge of maritime rescues? Is it so difficult to professionalize something on which lives depend, and not be at the expense of deciding who has to act in the face of an event, of knowing who has taken the material that the Cabildo bought or of waiting for the arrival of a volunteer or special envoys from Gran Canaria?
"The face of that child in front of mine, with his eyes open, no one is going to take it away from me. And neither the impotence that I lacked those five minutes to be able to get him out with more life than I took him out." That was the heartbreaking story of Daniel Corujo, after starring in, probably, one of the most heroic and dramatic days of his life. Unfortunately, it seems that those responsible for preventing something like this from happening again have forgotten what happened to that child.
