Terrassa activated a forest fire drill on Wednesday morning in the surroundings of Masia Egara and the Can Jofresa Sports Center to test the coordination of emergency services and municipal teams. The exercise, promoted by the City Council with support from the Provincial Council, began around ten with the detection of the supposed fire.
The test posed a situation of high complexity in an urban and facilities area, with a wedding in the farmhouse and an evacuation bus that had an accident due to smoke and flames. Based on that scenario, the operation mobilized hundreds of people and forced the simultaneous organization of rescues, healthcare, and transfers.
Jordi Ballart directed the operation from the CECOPAL of the Govern Hall
The mayor, Jordi Ballart, followed and directed the drill from the Municipal Operational Coordination Center, installed in the Government Room. From there, the response to an emergency that combined a forest fire with direct impact on people concentrated at Masia Egara was centralized.
The City Council proposed the exercise with the support of the Provincial Council to check how the coordination protocols between emergency services and municipal services respond. The test also had to measure the liaison capacity between the commands and the different intervention points on the ground.
During the operation, teams attended to the most seriously injured, provided first aid, and separated those who could walk on their own from people who required assisted transport. The sequence forced simultaneous work on several fronts.
The drill took the injured to a field hospital and then to hospital centers
Healthcare was organized in two phases. First, the injured who could not be immediately evacuated were taken to a field hospital set up in the area and, afterwards, transferred to hospitals.
Meanwhile, the unharmed people left by bus for the reception center set up in the Municipal Sports Zone of Can Jofresa. This device allowed for the separation of urgent medical attention from the management of evacuees who did not present injuries.
In addition to testing the initial response to fire, the drill served to rehearse an added incident during the evacuation with the bus accident affected by smoke and flames. That part of the exercise introduced a second emergency to an operation already underway.
Officials from the City Council and the Provincial Council gave a positive assessment of the result and framed the subsequent analysis as a tool for adjusting procedures. The drill began around ten in the morning and mobilized hundreds of people in the vicinity of Can Jofresa and Masia Egara.